Xenosaga: The beating of her heart
by Maxwell Cross
Summary: This is the story of a new character that I had added to the story who falls in love with a certin female in the party....
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the game of Xenosaga, that is own by Namco and Monolith (pardon the spelling) Xenogears is owned by Square-Enix and I ave no intention of using this story in any way to earn money or take credit for it's creation. My only intent is to use these characters to make a wonderfull story.

Update! (Look to the newly added chapter 11 for details!)

Chapter 1: Thoughts of the past. Actions of the present.

Forty-six hours is a long time to wait.

The two were cramped up in the back of the tiny cargo hold of the fighter headed for Pleroma. The eldest looking one stood with his back against the wall with arms crossed and eyes closed. The younger looking one sat on the floor in the same way with one leg bent and the other lying on the deck. Only his head was leaned back and eyes open with an expression of boredom written on his face. They couldn't talk or else the two U-TIC soldiers piloting the craft would hear them, even in the back. The elder one didn't mind this but the younger one did. He had nothing to do no music to listen to, no books to read and he couldn't talk.

46 hours is a long time to wait indeed.

Daemar sighed inwardly and looked around the tiny hold. There wasn't much to it, just boxes of supplies stacked high enough to hide them both from sight. He sighed again this time audibly and received a light tap from his partners' metallic foot. Daemar looked up at the blonde man's face and saw him shake his head and motion for him to keep quiet. Daemar could have screamed in frustration if he wanted to be found out, so he simply nodded and kept quiet. So with this new quiet he decided to think, it was all he could do.

Daemar wasn't born in the time just as his real name wasn't Daemar, he thought back to his own time. He was born on June 22nd, 2025 on Earth, in what might be now considered dark ages. He'd always been full of energy and he put it to good use by joining the military, once he got out of boot camp he was scouted out by a special forces agent and joined the US special ops force. In the year 2042 World War III broke out and the USSO force was called into action. That same year Daemar was injured and written off as dead, because of that he was used in an experiment to create the ultimate solider. He was made into one of the first true combat cyborgs to be used on the battlefield.

Unfortunately going from human to cyborg without being asked or even told about it didn't sit well with him, but because a portion of his brain was replaced with a computer he could be made to obey orders weither he liked it or not. For the next year he fought in the largest war known to man, unlike WWI and II, the entire world was literally at war. No country was safe, not even Antarctica. During the course of that year Daemar's mental state became more and more unbalanced until one day he could no longer tell the difference between friend and foe. That's when he starting to kill on both sides, anyone who stood in his path was cut down. At this Daemar frowned a little, he never liked that memory. Who would?

Soon after he stopped obeying the forced commands and began to kill anything that moved, including non-combatants. Because of his cybernetic enhancements, killing him would be nearly impossible. Destroying him would require a nuke at the very least and if any one country launched, the whole world would follow suit. So several Special Forces units were sent to stop him, and through a combination of heavy tranquilizers and EMP weapons Daemar was brought down alive. For the safety of all mankind he was stored in a cold sleep pod, which was in turn put into one of the first long range space shuttles and shot into space. The ship was aimed at a distant star, which is known now as Milita.

Of course Daemar wasn't aware of any of this, his last memory was that of being brought down by no less than twenty armed men. The next memory he had was being woken up in the hospital ward of a massive ship called the Dammurung, and that his body had been altered again. From what he was told cybernetic technology was far outdated, but compared to his very old body it was top of the line. His body's old cybernetic parts had been replaced with what was now called the P.C.S. or Personal Combat System. It was a new type of combat suit that was being tested to combat the Gnosis but when stacked up to an A.G.W.S. it failed miserably. But for Daemar it was far better than his old cyborg parts.

His mind had also been restored to its former state, the computer circuitry replaced with top of the line parts, minus the forced command override. He was told that it was almost a miracle that his brain wasn't destroyed from staying in cold sleep for so long, the lack of stimuli played a part in it. Daemar shook his head and smiled a little, it was a miracle there was no telling what kind of person he'd have been if he lost his memories. He'd been found in the rubble of a building on Milita fourteen years ago, his barely functioning cold sleep pod was part of a special "collection" that belonged to a crazy old man who'd died in his sleep when the part of the building he was in exploded during the fighting. Daemar's pod was locked away downstairs and was found by Vector soldiers who were trying to evacuate any civilians they could. The pod itself was badly damaged and partly open with Daemar laying half out of it and awake. Fortunately he was so disoriented that it was a simple task to take him back to the Dammurung. It took nearly four years to rebuild him. Instead of rushing headlong into the first ship he could find to go back to Earth, he took time to study the history he missed out on, after all if Earth had been around for more than 2000 years since he left then it could wait a little longer.

So for the next five years he did his own exploring, learning what had changed and what hadn't. So in T.C. 4762 Daemar became a freelance mercenary after returning to Vector to receive weapons upgrades. Daemar paused in thought for a moment and then nodded to himself. He'd met his partner three years ago; they'd both been on a mission for different employers. It was a simple recon job and they'd decided to work together since it was a matter of gathering information. Once they'd both seen how well they worked together they teamed up as partners. Over the next three years they did most of their jobs together though now and then they did solo jobs.

Daemar stopped his line of thought there; it had been three years ago today that they met and it had been a bit of a strange relationship that they shared. His partner was older physically, had less cybernetic parts and longed to forget his human side. Where as Daemar was younger (though technically he's thousands of years older) had more cybernetic parts and tried his hardest not to forget his human side. He blinked as he felt the ship slow; they must have been getting closer to Pleroma. He stood up next to his partner and once the small ship docked they both switched on their stealth suits and moved out of the ship into the dock silently.

From there it was a simple matter of strolling to the cells and recovering the 100 series Realian. Daemar reached out to tap his partners' shoulder to catch his attention and divert it to the Mercurio A.W.G.S. Even for a pair of cyborgs, it would be a tough battle if it came to that and at least one of them wouldn't make it out alive. Daemar waited until his partner had planted the explosives before they moved on, and then the worst possible thing happened.

Daemar looked over in time to see his partners' stealth suit fail. "Z? What's wrong?" He whispered. Ziggurat 8 was tapping the small control panel on his arm and looked back at his still invisible partner. "Damn...a malfunction. We'll have to do this the old fashioned way." Daemar taped the controls to his own stealth suit and became visible. The form reviled was that of a young man in his early twenties standing a little shorter than Ziggurat 8. The young man had dark brown hair held back in a loose tail, matching dark brown eyes and tan skin. It was obvious that he was a cyborg, both of his arms appeared to be a part of some metallic blue combat armor, but after a moment a hologram flickered to life over them and made them look and feel like real flesh. His clothing wasn't exactly the latest fashion either, a simple white shirt tucked into black jeans that were tucked into knee high leather boots. A matching black leather jacket hung opened and the sleeves were rolled up to the elbows, it was the type of clothing that people wore in the twenty first century. And more accurately it was his favorite outfit.

Even by Ziggurat 8's standards Daemar was unusual, he didn't act like the people of this time and when he spoke to him, the younger man almost never called him Ziggurat 8. Usually it was something like "big Z" or just "Z" The young man was very strange indeed, but he was strong and that's all that mattered. With ease the two cyborgs moved across the tile floor and slipped passed the soldiers without raising any alarm. Across the small bridge over the chapel and passed a Mercurio A, and on to the cells. They both peeked around the corner to look, it was pretty obvious that out of three cells the only one with guards held the Realian. On the count of three, they both rushed the guards and took them down with no trouble.

Ziggurat 8 peered into the cell and spoke to the Realian, Daemar couldn't see her but heard a voice that belonged to a child. While Daemar kept his eyes open for anymore guards, Ziggurat 8 spoke to the Realian, and a few moments later spoke to Daemar. "We can't force the door open or it'll trigger the alarm, there should be a master key around here somewhere. I'll go look for it, you stay here." He said. "Got it Z." Daemar replied as he switched on his stealth suit. He could only wait while Z went to find the key, he didn't try to speak to the little Realian, not that he was rude he just didn't want to be heard if any guards came.

Finally Ziggurat 8 returned and opened the door and entered with Daemar behind. Peeking around the taller cyborg, Daemar got his first look at their objective. She was a cute little girl with red hair and yellow eyes, the clothing she wore could have been, in Daemar's opinion, a school uniform for girls in this day and age. He smiled at her and spoke aloud after Ziggurat 8 confirmed that she was their objective. "Wow, I didn't think I'd be rescuing such a cutie!" Before anyone could say anything the alarm went off, Daemar spun around and saw that a guard had triggered a remote alarm.

They all ran quickly after the girl gave her name and ducked into a monitoring room where a round of introductions was made. "Who are you?" MOMO asked. "I am Ziggurat 8 and this is my partner Daemar." Ziggurat said.

"Are you combat realians?"

"No, ex-humans."

"Hey, speak for yourself Z, I never died! Oh wait... I did…at least…I think…..." Daemar said feeling a little puzzled.

"Ex-human?" she asked.

"Yes, we're cyborgs." Ziggurat said.

MOMO smiled a little bit as she looked at the two crouched cyborgs. "I like your name Daemar but your name sounds like a model number." She had turned back to Ziggurat and tilted her head to one side then suddenly brightened as she got an idea. "I know! Let's call you Ziggy, Z-I-G-G-Y, it's short for Ziggurat. What do you think? Does it sound like a puppy's name?" Ziggy reeled back for a moment and Daemar reached out a hand to steady him. "Hey Z, you ok?"

"I'm fine" he replied then stood up again. "Call me whatever you want." "Okay, then Ziggy it is!" MOMO said happily. Daemar frowned slightly, he wished he could be happy at a moment's notice as MOMO seemed to be. He shook his head and looked at them. "I think it's time we left." Ziggy nodded. "Your right, we can't stay here long." He peered over the edge of the glass and then looked back. "They're gone, let's go!" The small group stood and ran down the hall to a hatch in the floor with a ladder. At this point Daemar looked back and frowned then he turned to Ziggy. "You keep going, get to the docks, I'll find another way out of here." Ziggy didn't look surprised at this. "Are you sure? Fighting alone can be dangerous..." "Don't worry about me old man," Daemar said as he waved his hand. "I've been fighting on my own for a long time, I'll get to the dock so don't worry about me. Get her out of here safely, that's your concern. I'm planing on going back and causing some trouble."

MOMO stared at him with her head tilted to one side. "But how?" He grinned and tapped his left forearm, abruptly he disappeared though his voice could still be heard. "I still have my stealth suit, now get going you two!" With that he started off as they climbed down the ladder, now he began to worry as he ran as quickly and quietly as he could down the halls. Staying out of the way of guards and cyber crabs as well as he could. How exactly was he going to get out? The ship they had found and planed on using to escape was only large enough for two people and he very well couldn't sit in Ziggy's lap. He stopped his line of thought as he reached the bridge over the chapel. On the other side were a number of guards and a Mercurio A.W.G.S.

He'd have to move very carefully if he was to sneak past them, fighting wasn't much of an option. True he could take on the guards by himself no problem. It was the A.W.G.S. that had him worried, even though it was carrying a sword there wasn't enough room for him to move around without getting hit. He didn't have long to worry, a small arc of electricity shot from his left forearm to shoulder. A few smaller bolts moved from wrist to arm and the stealth suit failed, as did Ziggy's. He looked at his arm, then at the guards who in turn stared back at him. For a few moments no one said anything, the sound of an explosion from behind the guards broke the silence, causing them to whip around. That's when Daemar took his chance.

He rushed forward, clearly intent on rushing past the guards. As he did his entire body was suddenly covered in light and flashed brightly for an instant. The guards looked back at the flash and saw instead of a young man running towards them, they saw a humanoid figure clad in a type of blue combat armor with glowing yellow eyes. The figure roared in a metallic voice as it rushed the guards, at this point the A.W.G.S. raised its sword and brought it down hard. And it missed. Daemar shoulder tackled the first guard, knocking him down and kept running, the guard in question had a moment to scream as the sword from the A.W.G.S. came down on him. The blow was so strong that it actually crushed the man rather than cut him in two. The remaining guards were so bewildered by this that they didn't bother to fire as the battle armor clad Daemar rushed out toward the docks.

At first MOMO was scared of the blue metallic figure that rushed out of the flames toward them. When she yelled out to Ziggy, he looked at the source of her distress and smiled slightly. "It's alright MOMO, that's Daemar. He has a P.C.S. that's all." And true to his word, as he drew closer the blue armor clad Daemar changed back to normal and jumped onto the ship. After a moment, he picked up MOMO, sat in her place and planted her in his lap. She looked back and smiled for a moment, now it was easier for her to reach the controls. Ziggy looked back at them as MOMO closed the cockpit and tore the shuttle out of Plemora. "What took you so long?" He asked.

Daemar blinked and scratched the back of his head. "Um...scenic route?"

End of Chapter 1

Do you wish to save?


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the game of Xenosaga, that is own by Namco and Monolith (pardon the spelling) Xenogears is owned by Square-Enix and I ave no intention of using this story in any way to earn money or take credit for it's creation. My only intent is to use these characters to make a wonderfull story.

Chapter 2: First meetings and puppy love

If there was one thing Daemar hated, it was not being in control of where he was going. It was one of the reasons he preferred being the pilot when he and Ziggy went on missions, now he sat in the back with the ship's tiny pilot in his lap. MOMO had just given control of the weapons to Ziggy, and a few moments later after braking hard, Ziggy fired and destroyed the three ships that had chased them into hyperspace. Things didn't get any better after that, the second wave from Plemora arrived. Auto-Tech fighters and a large number of them too. _Just how badly do they want her? I know she's a 100 series observational Realian but still she'd just a Realian. What is it about her that's so special?_ His line of thought cut off as the Auto-Tech units began to close in. Without thought he placed his hands, which had changed back to their original metallic form, behind MOMO's and worked the controls behind the flight globes. When she looked back he grinned. "Hey, the least I can do is try and lighten the load for you. You fly the ship, I'll worry about keeping it in one piece."

For a time it was just a matter of outrunning the enemy, but it became more and more clear that the shuttle they had "borrowed" simply wasn't designed for speed like the Auto-Techs were. "I've sent out an omni-directional distress signal..." MOMO started to say. Then Daemar blinked, the sensors picked up something and she identified it faster than he did. "Ziggy! There's a civilian ship in hyperspace! We have to warn them!" Daemar frowned and worked his fingers over the controls, forming a simple link between the computer in the shuttle and the one in his brain. "Can you open a channel?" Ziggy asked. MOMO closed her eyes for a moment, she too had formed a link but just long enough to access the comm systems. "Securing an emergency channel. Go ahead."

"I'll try and I.D. the ship." Daemar said to which Ziggy nodded and began to speak his warning. "Attention, civilian spacecraft. A battle has broken out in hyperspace. For the safety of your ship, we recommend you gate out as soon as possible." After he finished speaking Daemar spoke. "I can't find the ship's name or registry, this system doesn't have a large database. It's mostly U-TIC programs, damn!" The Auto-Tech ships were getting closer, any moment now they'd pull into firing range. Though it wasn't necessary he continued to manipulate the controls with his hands rather than through the link, he began pulling power from any area of the ship that could spare it and route it to the engines for speed. From his perspective he was viewing information about the ship and it's systems, abruptly the display turned red and a klaxon alarm went off in his ears. "Evasive maneuvers, their firing!"

The civilian ship at this point had done a good job of avoiding the battle, but now it too was about to be drawn in. It dodged nearer to the column walls to avoid the laser blasts coming from behind, it seemed safe enough until a stray bolt struck it. "The civilian ship just took a hit on the port side, minimal damage but we might want to think about getting out of hyperspace before they get hurt." He said as they passed it by with Auto-Techs right behind them. Suddenly two of the chasing ships exploded, the civilian ship had opened fire! Daemar looked back using an exterior camera just as MOMO spoke.

"Ziggy!" She said, a note of hope in her voice.

"Yeah. These guys must like trouble. You two okay back there?"

"Yup! I'm fine." MOMO responded and Daemar nodded.

"That's what I like to hear." He said.

The shuttle flew closer to the column walls, so close that the bottom began to leave a large trail of flame in it's wake, in effect making the shuttle "ride" the energy stream like a surfer on a wave. The trail of flame hit a number of the Auto-Tech's, vaporizing them. Daemar blinked as the civilian ship followed suit, riding the wall and creating an even larger trail of flame. The pilot of that ship had to be drunk or insane! Either way the rest of the Auto-Tech's were destroyed in the flame wake, much to his relief.

Just as he started to breathe a sigh the sensors flashed again. "Ziggy, MOMO, more Auto-Tech's approaching and they're firing! I've put all power to the engines, go go GO!" He shouted. MOMO's skills as a pilot we easily on par with his, he was just starting to get the idea in his head that they just might make it out alive. The shuttle lurched hard and the display in his eyes flashed red and yellow rapidly. "We're hit! Left booster is gone! Shuttle power is down to 35%" He suddenly went quiet, there was no chance of survival. Even if he'd activated his P.C.S. he'd never survive in hyperspace, so now it was a race to see what would kill them first. The Auto-Tech ships or the impact with the column walls. He didn't speak, there wasn't a need to after all, and he had no idea what his last words would be.

"It looks like...this is the end of the line. I'm sorry I couldn't see you through this safely." Ziggy said softly. MOMO had taken her hands off the controls and rested them in her lap as she replied in a small voice. "It's okay...I know. Thanks for everything you've done." Ziggy looked back at them. "Are you scared?" She shook her head and patted Daemar's right hand. "A little... But I'm okay. Because your both here with me."

Silence descended on them for the next few moments, then the shuttle lurched again and was still. Daemar blinked, he'd broken the link with the computer already and so was reduced to looking around the cockpit until he saw a sight that made him smile. The civilian ship had just grabbed them with a rather large grappling claw and held the tiny shuttle firmly. Just then a man's voice came in over their intercom. "We're gonna pull you in. Hurry inside once the hatch closes. We'll get rid of 'em." MOMO smiled, as did Daemar, while the claw began to pull them in. Suddenly it halted, was something wrong? A few moments later another voice spoke, also male and much younger. "Attention vessel occupants. Can you make it up on your own? The ship's shielding should cover you a bit, so if you put on your spacesuits and use the hull as a shield..."

"Roger, the three of us aren't human so I'm sure we can make it." Ziggy responded as he opened the cockpit. Ziggy stepped out first while Daemar lifted MOMO down to him. He then followed them down and glanced around the half-closed deck while MOMO and Ziggy shared a few words. He didn't know if they had noticed or not but the heat being generated by the friction of ship hull against the column walls was rather intense. Only when MOMO cried out and pointed did he notice the large Auto-Tech ship slip onto the deck with them, it hovered near the back for a few moments then disappeared. But not after dropping off a number of smaller "gifts" for them to face. Domo's.

Unlike Ziggy and MOMO, Daemar didn't have the ability to use Ether skills as they did. He'd always reasoned that it was because he was made up of very old technology and was therefor incompatible. However like Ziggy, he had a great deal of physical strength and excelled in hand to hand combat. He knew Ziggy still had his beam cannon but it might not be enough, and while he knew MOMO was designed to fight the Gnosis, he had his doubts about her combat ability. Crouching down next to the shuttle he whispered to the others. "I'm gonna charge at them and fight, try and keep them distracted. When I do, you two make a run for it." MOMO shook her head immediately. "No... you can't do that alone, it's too dangerous. If we work together..." But Ziggy stopped her. "No, MOMO. He's right, he's done this before and I think it'll work. We'll run on the count of three after you attack them." Daemar nodded and tightened his hands into fists, turned in his crouch and took up a stance like a runner before a race.

He lifted his body on his legs, and then bolted toward the Domo's as fast as he could. With a roar he threw himself at the Domo's, many turning to face the source of this new sound. One unlucky unit turned to face the sound just as Daemar's metallic fist connected with the red optical sensor, the Domo reared back and hit the floor, unable to see what was happening. Rather than waste his own weapons, Daemar leaned down and ripped the leg off the blinded Domo. He dashed forward again, swinging the leg like a club and screaming like a madman. Ziggy and MOMO by then had both counted to three and started running along the edge of the deck wall to avoid the fight. Ziggy looked as though he wanted to join in and help his partner but MOMO kept pulling his arm, forcing him through the door.

The pair stopped next to a set of stairs next to the door to catch their breath. MOMO kept trying to pull Ziggy along, but the cyborg shook his head. "No, I won't leave him behind. We'll wait." They didn't have to wait long though, three minutes later Daemar stepped through the door and stumbled against the wall. He dropped what was left of the leg of another Domo and panted. MOMO walked over and reached out a hand to his arm. "Are you okay?"

Daemar waved her off and stood again. "Yeah, I'm fine. Guess it's been awhile since I've been in a knock down, drag out fight. C'mon, we'd better keep going. No doubt this ship's captain will want a word or three with us." He lead the way, taking the stairs two at a time with the others following. He stepped though the door and led them around a corner then stopped when another group of people came into view. It was only three people, the first one was a woman wearing a uniform that he quickly identified as that of a Vector employee, and a top class one too. She had long brown hair and light blue eyes, she was really quite pretty but a touch too short for his tastes. The second was a young man easily the same height as the Vector woman with silver hair and eyes that seemed green but sometimes blue if the light caught them right. His choice of clothing was a little different, orange and blue boots with some type of skintight material on his legs and upper body. A pair of very short shorts, a matching pair of orange and blue gloves, and a vest to match. That particular combination made him raise an eyebrow, but then his eyes turned to the third member of the group and his heart skipped a beat.

Standing there was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. She was close to his height and slender, her hair was a light blue, almost like the eyes of the Vector woman's. Her eyes were red, that was the first clue to tip him off that she might not be human. Like it really mattered to him.

Her face seemed almost like it was sculpted, it was flawless and had an almost doll like quality to it. And at the moment it seemed emotionless, that thought saddened him. A face like that should never have to go without a smile at least. Her body was well shaped, so much so that when Daemar tried to describe it words to himself, the only word he could think of was perfect. She wore a skintight, one-piece outfit that look almost as if it were a part of her. He had trouble after that, he could hardly focus on anything else about her. He wasn't standing there like an idiot or drooling over her but he seemed to be in a daze. If he could just stare at her face, at it's flawless shapes and planes then he could die a happy man. Or rather a happy cyborg.

It was at that point that the woman from Vector, who'd just named herself Shion, looked at him with concern. "Are you alright?" She said. "You seem a little, I dunno...tired?" "Huh? What? Oh! Yeah, I'm fine. I think I might have overworked myself a little back there." Daemar grinned and tried to brush it off, he'd just realized that he'd missed the brief round of introductions. After a moment he played back the audio file and heard the names spoken. _So, this blue haired goddess is named Kos-Mos..._

After a few minutes it was made clear that the only way to rid themselves of the Auto-Techs was to find the Domo carrier that passed them before and destroy it. Daemar nodded and grinned, the holographic image around his arms faded and his metallic blue arms shone dimly in the light. This would be the perfect time to show what he could do! With Shion in the lead the group made their way down to the hanger, facing and destroying the various Domo's that crossed their path. Kos-Mos was proving to be very powerful, she was destroying the Domo's with more ease than Daemar was and taking less time to do it too. When they faced the carrier, Daemar took the lead. He leaped into the air with a roar and attacked, landing a crushing blow on what could only be its head, causing it to stumble.

_Yeah! Take that! HA! I'll show you who the better fighter is!_ He thought as the others began to attack as well. Ziggy closed in and using his blade while MOMO supported him from behind. Chaos seemed to be using some sort of self-generated energy to attack while Shion used a strange weapon what was attached to her left arm. It was red and seemed to be some sort of really large knuckle that could generate both electricity and fire. Kos-Mos by far was the most impressive, she moved gracefully in battle, almost like a swan. Dodging the carrier's attacks and returning the favor with well aimed shots from her blaster. Daemar continued his assault, pummeling the Domo carrier from above. _That's it! I'll show her how good I am! Wait...what am I doing? Why am I trying to prove myself to Kos-Mos? I've only just met her...why...?_

His thoughts cut off as the carrier suddenly trashed violently, throwing him off and to the floor. Before he even landed the carrier pulled back it's left arm and plunged it straight down, pinning him to the floor in a crushing grip. _Damn it! What was I thinking! Letting myself get distracted like that..._ His eyes started to close as the pain in his chest grew. As well made as he was, even he couldn't stand to be crushed under that much weight. The pain grew worse, his grip on consciousness loosened. It hurt so badly, he wanted to scream, he did scream as much as he could with the air and the very life being crushed out of him.

And then the pain was gone, the pressure lifted and his eyes snapped opened. He looked up and there she stood, part of her right arm had changed into a razor sharp blade with she had just used to slash the pinning leg in two. With her left hand she grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back away from the fight, Chaos fell back as well and came running. As he approached, Kos-Mos returned to the battle. With it's leg gone, the Domo carrier was starting to lose the fight. But none of the mattered to Daemar, he merely watched her as she continued to fight. Had he seen something in her eyes when she pulled him back? A small spark of...something? His eyes rolled back to Chaos who kneeled over him and spoke comforting words that he could barely hear. Light glowed softly around him as he used an Ether spell of some kind.

And then the world went black.

End of Chapter 2 Do you wish to save?


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the game of Xenosaga, that is own by Namco and Monolith (pardon the spelling) Xenogears is owned by Square-Enix and I ave no intention of using this story in any way to earn money or take credit for it's creation. My only intent is to use these characters to make a wonderfull story.

Chapter 3: Kind words and a new emotion

Daemar bolted awake, he'd been lying on a couch with a cover tucked around him. The room was dark, the lights out but he could still see. Already he ran his self-diagnostic and found that aside from having his chest partly crushed his body was fine, that ether spell must have repaired the worst of the damage already so that left his self-repair to finish the job. The spell didn't do a damn thing for his headache though, that was his own fault. Leaping onto the Domo carrier like that and beating it like a madman, he had earned that pain fair and square. He pushed the blanket off and turned so his feet were planted on the floor firmly, a moment later he stood though his legs wanted to wobble and go out from under him.

He grunted and reached out for something to support his weight with, finding nothing he toppled over to the floor. "Great...I can't even walk." He muttered. He still felt tired though and had no real desire to expend any more energy than he'd need to repair the damage to his chest. His eyes drifted shut and he was asleep a moment after that. It was about ten minutes later that Shion, MOMO and Ziggy came into the cabin and found him on the floor.

MOMO was the first one to kneel next to him, followed by Shion and then Ziggy. "Hey, are you ok?" MOMO asked as she shook his shoulder. Daemar muttered something under his breath that sounded strangely like "Fuzzy grilled cheese." Then his eyes opened and focused on the three faces looking down at him. "MOMO, Shion... Z... I'm sorry I worried you guys...I tried to get up but my legs didn't want to work." Ziggy extended his hand and pulled him to his feet, helping him to sit down on the couch again. "It's alright," Ziggy said. "I had a feeling you'd make it through, this isn't the first time you've done something reckless." Daemar nodded, but it was the first time he did it to try and impress someone.

While MOMO fussed over him, wanting to give him some of her nanos to speed along his recovery, Shion finally spoke after keeping her own council for a time. "You know, if your legs aren't working I could take a look at them if you'd like." Daemar knew she was just being kind especially from the way she smiled at him but he shook his head. "No, that's alright. I'll be fine, I just need a little time." MOMO finally stopped fussing and clapped her hands together as an idea hit her. "I know! We can keep you company until your feeling better then you can go on the tour with us!" Again he shook his head but he smiled. "No, that's ok MOMO. You go on ahead, I'll explore the ship later."

After a few more minutes the three of them moved on with the tour while Daemar sat on the couch. When he started to feel better he pushed to his feet, again he felt wobbly but he didn't fall as he had before. Once sure of his balance Daemar left the cabin to explore around. He noticed the bar down the way and headed towards it, but instead of going in to eat he took the other door into the kitchen and found her.

Kos-Mos was slightly bent over, washing dishes. She was almost finished by his guess but he went over there anyway. He stood there, just watching her from behind, almost transfixed as his eyes gazed over her graceful form. _I wonder if she likes to dance?_ He thought then blinked, he had no idea where that thought came from, but after a moment he remembered that back on Earth he used to go dancing before he was changed. He wasn't the best, but he enjoyed it. Shaking his head and bringing himself back to the present he cleared his throat softly before he spoke. "Um, Kos-Mos..."

"Your help with the dishes is not needed, I can manage without the help of others." Daemar blinked again then continued on. "No, it's not that I wanted to...thank you for saving my life. Back in the hanger bay...I... I was reckless and I endangered everyone. But you saved me, so thank you." Kos-Mos stopped and turned to face him, her head was tilted to one side slightly as if curious before she spoke. "You are welcome." Then she turned back to her task, Daemar sighed softly and turned to leave. Maybe it was just a fluke whatever it was he saw in her face before. He must have been seeing things when he thought he'd seen emotion in her face before.

"I noticed that Shion took your friends on a tour of the Elsa while you were still asleep. If you would like, I could also take you on a tour." Kos-Mos said suddenly. Daemar turned around quickly, more than a little surprised. She had faced him again as well, her head tilted to the other side this time. Just watching him. "Y-yeah, sure that sounds great." She nodded. "I shall be finished momentarily, please wait." He nodded and leaned back against the wall, he couldn't believe his luck! A private tour of the ship, with her! He was starting to grin like an idiot when she walked up to him. "Why are you smiling like that?" Daemar jumped, he hadn't even heard her approach, but he recovered quickly. "I'm just in a good mood that's all." Nodding, she waved her hand toward the door and they went off.

She seemed somewhat stiff to him, in the way she spoke and looked around. He knew she wasn't human but if she had been made to blend in with humans and act like them then why wasn't she? He pondered this as he watched her during the tour. Now and then she would stop to point out something of interest before moving on. Finally the tour ended in the room where Kos-Mos maintenance pod was kept.

"Thank you for the tour Kos-Mos." She replied with a nod and turned to leave the room, Daemar hung back for a moment to watch her leave then he sighed softly.

"Who am I kidding? What can she see in me? I mean I'm just a cyborg, I'm not like her..." He was cut off as he felt the ship shake slightly, they must have made it to the dock colony. Maybe he could find parts to repair himself, maybe even some A.W.G.S. weapons to integrate into his system. With these thoughts in mind he left the room and made his way toward the air lock.

End of Chapter 3

Do you wish to save?


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the game of Xenosaga, that is own by Namco and Monolith (pardon the spelling) Xenogears is owned by Square-Enix and I ave no intention of using this story in any way to earn money or take credit for it's creation. My only intent is to use these characters to make a wonderfull story.

Chapter 4: Trouble on the horizon and an unexpected event

As it turned out that, while Kos-Mos stayed on the ship, Shion, Ziggy and Hammer went out looking for Commander Cherenkov who'd gone looking for a charter flight. But as he'd found out from Matthews that a solider had no place here, he remembered reading about the war and how this area was left in ruins. Well his days as a solider were long behind him and he wasn't going to mention it to anyone. With Ziggy helping Shion look he doubted that they would need him, so he chose to go into the nearest shop he could find named "Talk to me."

The only thing of interest that he'd found was a missile pod that he thought Ziggy would like and an A.W.G.S. weapon that he thought he could modify for his P.C.S. to use. After paying for his purchase and making sure it would be sent to the Elsa right away, he stepped out of the shop. Just in time to dodge a medical cart with an injured young man on it, several others were coming as well. "What the hell is going on here?" Taking a moment to peek outside and finding no medical carts to run him over he stepped out just in time to see Ziggy, Shion and Hammer come running. "Hey Z, what's going on?" Daemar asked as he started to run to keep pace with them as they made for the Elsa. "I'll explain once we get to the Elsa."

A few minutes later the group, minus Hammer who'd gone to tell the captain what happened, found Commander Cherenkov sitting in Ziggy's maintenance bay, MOMO was fussing over the Commander. She kept trying to heal his wounds with nanospray but he kept on refusing. Daemar raised an eyebrow, why would anyone refuse to be healed through nanosurgery? It was far better than natural healing, even he a man of the 21st century knew that much. It just didn't make sense...unless he was hiding something? Daemar shook his head, there was a time and place for speculation and now wasn't it; soon the Elsa would be leaving the Dock Colony and head for the Miltian star system. He needed to be ready before then, there was no telling when the U-TIC would come after MOMO again or worse, the gnosis attacked.

Daemar first went to the cabin he shared with the other men, though he hardly used his bunk to sleep in. One thing about him that had changed since he'd awoken in this time was his new cyborg parts allowed him to go long periods of time without sleep. And even if he did need sleep then he'd simply find a place to curl up such as a chair or couch. Sometimes he just fell asleep standing up where he happened to be, few had seen him like this and all who had seen it always looked at him funny_. Bah, damn hypocrites. What do they know anyways? I'll bet none of them were ever cyborg._ Arriving at his bunk he found a card on the pillow saying that his purchase was waiting for him down at the A.W.G.S. hanger. _I'd better get down there before the busted up robot sells it off to pay the Captain's debt..._

A few minutes later he made it down to the hanger and picked up the item he'd bought. An A.W.G.S. SMG99AG submachine gun, since the P.C.S. was designed to fight the gnosis it had many of the same circuits and components that an A.W.G.S. did only smaller, so Daemar could use them as spare parts if he needed to or scale down the larger weapons. He'd already done that to an SWD21AG sword though that was more of a conversion into a new weapon. Mounted inside his right forearm was a long, squared tipped blade. The weapon was of his own design and would pop from his arm rather than become an extension of his arm. The sword had three modes, standard, segmented and chain. Standard was just that, a basic blade that extended from his arm. Segmented was just that as well, the blade would split into segments and could be used as a bladed whip. Chain was by far his favorite mode, when activated, the blade would emerge from his arm and the segments would separate to a degree then begin the spin around the center part of the blade (which remained one solid piece) just like a chainsaw. The blade itself was made of a material that could slice through almost anything, even A.W.G.S. armor, just like the blade Kos-Mos used. _Speaking of Kos-Mos..._ he thought before carrying the large weapon to the lift on the port side and went into the maintenance bay where Kos-Mos currently slept.

For the moment her pod was closed but once after arriving Daemar had slipped down there and just sat, watching the pod silently, for some reason he seemed to be able to gather his thoughts and relax when he was in there. Maybe it's because I like her...ha...that's funny... He sat down on the couch and opened up his left arm where he kept a small set of tools for minor repairs that his own nanomachines couldn't handle or when he needed to modify a weapon. He opened the small side panel on the weapon and set to work. He lost all sense of time as he worked, he was totally focused on his task and didn't notice when the Elsa made its jump into hyperspace.

Nearly three hours had passed and sitting in his lap was the fruits of his labor, the machine gun was now scaled down to handheld size though it was more powerful than a normal submachine gun. For a moment dark blue light surrounded the weapon then it vanished, now it was stored in his left arm for later use. When Daemar looked up from putting away his tools he stopped, Kos-Mos pod was wide open. _Funny...I don't remember hearing it open..._ Letting his curiosity get the better of him Daemar stood up and walked to the edge of the pod and looked in. As he'd thought she was still asleep and as lovely as the moment he'd first seen her barely a day ago.

Just looking down at her put him into a state of awe, never before had he seen someone so perfect, so flawless. Her skin was almost pale, her facial features were soft, almost angelic. And not a single strand of her hair was out of place either, his fingers longed to touch it, almost ached really. Before he realized it his hand lifted and almost touched her face before he stopped it. _What am I doing? I can't do that...it's not right...no matter how beautiful she is..._ But still his hand moved forward and with a great gentleness one wouldn't see in metallic hands, touched her cheek. They recoiled back a few inches almost as if frightened of her reaction, but when none came they moved in again. Her skin was cool to the touch and softer than anything he'd ever felt before, the backs of his fingers caressed her cheek before moving down to her chin. No matter how hard her tried he couldn't find anything imperfect about her, even her delicately pointed nose was perfect. Not too sharp or to snubbed but just right for her face.

Shaking slightly his fingers moved up slowly to her lips and when they touched his entire body trembled at the feel. Hers were lips that would never need lipstick, the slight shade of pink that could only be seen up close would be more than enough. Again, before he knew what he was doing he leaned down towards her then stopped. _What am I thinking! I can't..._

His face moved closer to hers.

_I can't..._

Closer.

_I can't stop..._

His lips met hers, pressing gently and know that this would be her first kiss as well as his. His mind reveled in the feelings running though his entire body. He felt lightheaded, his fingers shook slightly as they cupped her cheek and he felt as though electricity ran through his entire body, which it did technically. So incredible was the feeling that he didn't notice her eyes open.

Nor did he notice that they were blue.

End of Chapter 4

Do you wish to save?


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the game of Xenosaga, that is own by Namco and Monolith (pardon the spelling) Xenogears is owned by Square-Enix and I ave no intention of using this story in any way to earn money or take credit for it's creation. My only intent is to use these characters to make a wonderfull story.

Chapter 5: Lost

The pleasant sensations running through Daemar's half human half machine body were suddenly halted when he felt Kos-Mos black gloved right hand touching his left cheek as his left hand was doing to her right cheek. His dark brown eyes, which had closed when he kissed her now snapped open in panic and looked into hers. Her pulled his head back and got only about three inches before her right hand moved to the back of his head and stopped him. It was then that he noticed something different about her, it was her eyes. The red that had sharpened her features were now blue, somehow they seemed to soften her face even more and made her seem more alive than before. However while he noticed these things about her his mind was also working itself into a fine lather as he tried to think of an excuse, but none came.

"I'm sorry I...I didn't mean to... I shouldn't have-"

"Why?" she asked, cutting him off.

Daemar just looked at her, his face blank for a moment and now slightly confused. "I...couldn't stop myself...you're so beautiful..." His mouth clamped shut. _This isn't helping! I've got to leave!_ But Kos-Mos just looked at him and let her hands cup his face then smiled. "You think I'm beautiful?" Daemar could only nod in return before she did something he didn't expect. She leaned her head upward and returned the kiss, just as gentle and soft as his was. Her eyes were closed but his were wide open with surprise, he let the kiss continue for a moment more before his senses got the better of him and he pulled away. Kos-Mos sat up in the pod and watched him with a confused look on her face as he backed up toward the door stammering. "I'm sorry...I shouldn't have done that. I'm really sorry!" Then he tore out of the room, jumped off the lift before it could land on the A.W.G.S. deck, then leapt up the next one without waiting for it to rise and didn't stop running until he was on the bridge.

When MOMO and Ziggy arrived a few minutes later after having seen him run past them without stopping and found him hunched over with his hands on his knees taking in deep breaths. Concerned as ever, MOMO came over to him and reached up a hand to touch his shoulder. "Are you ok?" Daemar almost jumped out of his skin and looked at her wild-eyed before he answered. "Y-yeah...I'm fine." Ziggy approached the two and raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that? Your heart rate is up and you look a littler nervous. Did something happen?" Daemar's face turned slightly red as he looked at his taller partner. "No...nothing happened at all..."

He cut off when Kos-Mos stepped onto the bridge, her eyes were their normal red now and she held something in her left hand. Now his face took on a shade of red that normally would be considered unhealthy. "Daemar? Hey are you alright? You look hot! Stay here I'll get you something to drink." Before he could protest MOMO ran past Kos-Mos on her errand. The taller girl strode towards Daemar and before he could say a word she handed him something. "Here, I believe you left this tool in my maintenance hanger. You should not leave your tools behind, you may need them in the future." _Even her voice has changed...its like she's someone else now..._ he thought a little sadly as he took the tools from her and stored them away.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when he felt the entire ship suddenly shake. "What the?" He looked around the room for a moment then let his sensors, which were almost extensions of himself really, scan the surrounding space. He'd only just begun when both MOMO and Shion returned to the bridge, MOMO dropped the drink she'd brought for Daemar and gasped as Shion asked. "Wh-what's going on?" The reply came from Kos-Mos. "A powerful force is affecting the ship from outside hyperspace. " Then MOMO asked in a frightened voice, her hands cupping before her mouth. "What does that mean?"

"It means something bad is about to happen." Daemar said as he felt rather than sensed the Gnosis pull the small Elsa from hyperspace, only he and Kos-Mos knew they were surrounded and had little chance of escape. It was the first time his sensors acted as a part of him rather than just a piece of equipment that was installed. _This must be what MOMO feels when she senses something... It's like she can really feel it._

So lost was his mind that he hardly heard the exchange between the Captain and the others until he literally felt the Hilbert Effect that Kos-Mos suddenly unleashed at Shion's command. It was like a cold wave of water or air suddenly passed over him, shocking him from his near dreamlike state. When he saw the massive Gnosis that was pulling the Elsa in he began to back up as if that would get him away from it until he felt something take hold of his left hand. When he looked down it was Kos-Mos hand that held his gently, when he looked at her face he could see her eyes slowly beginning to change from red to blue, understanding and calm shone from her face.

Then the world was bathed in white light.

Daemar awoke alone, his head aching as if split by a hammer. He lay on his stomach for several moments after waking then slowly pushed to all fours, leaving his head hanging with his hair draped around his face in disarray after it fell from it's loose tail. Groaning, he lifted his head and sat back on his knees to take in his surroundings and while his hands moved to pull his hair back into place he froze. He could HEAR the ground below him gurgle, feel it move ever so slightly. He felt life all around him and with wide eyes he realized just what had happened. He'd been transported somehow inside the giant Gnosis, and he was alone.

_Ok... I'd say this is as good a time as any to panic._

And panic he did, if only for a moment. He leaned back and let rip from his throat a scream of utter panic and confusion that likely would scare and confuse those who heard it. He took in several deep breaths as he heard the last of his ten-second-scream echo off the living walls and fade away. He stood on slightly shaky legs then willed them to stop. That was one of the hardest things about being a human/cyborg convert. You were so used to a human body that you did silly little things you never thought about that normally wouldn't happen such as shaking in fear or panic.

"Ok Daemar, this is probably the worst situation you've ever gotten yourself into...though how exactly I got into I'm not quite sure yet. I'm inside a gigantic Gnosis by myself, I have to assume the others are here somewhere as well as the Elsa. Now...seeing as how I haven't been digested I have to assume the others haven't been as well. So, I've got to find them." He nodded to himself as he lent himself his own strength and nerve to start exploring. His sensors were almost useless, everything around him was alive and confused them. "Like a moth drawn to a mate... He knows she's there but he's so close he can't pinpoint her..." He muttered as he turned in a slow circle and after about five full turns he finally stopped. "There...that way...I think." In the direction he faced he could just barely make out life that was different from what was around him, but if it was his friends or something else he didn't know.

Faced with no other choice, Daemar began to walk. Already he pulled out the submachine gun he'd worked on before and held it ready to use_. Good a time as any for a field test...I know my sword works but I'd rather not have to get in close if I can help it._ Every few moments he'd jump slightly at any sound he heard and his hands tightened on the gun a little more until finally he stopped and took a deep breath. "Ok, this is silly, you're a solider and a damned good one too. Not to mention you have the P.C.S. which is an anti gnosis weapon. You'll be fine!"

He continued to give himself encouragement as he walked along, trying his best to ignore the squishing sounds his feet made. In all he looked like a nervous wreck as he walked, shaking slightly and muttering to himself that he'd be fine. If a gnosis did attack he'd probably unload most of his magazine into it until it vanished from this world, if he even got as far as firing of course. Twice he did encounter the gnosis; the first time pitted him against a dog like creature that roared unlike any dog he ever heard of before. Killing it was easy enough, just point and shoot and it went down within a matter of moments, and Daemar had been surprised. He'd thought that the Gnosis would put up more of a fight than that. But perhaps a weak one had attacked him?

Daemar was quite right, as two much larger gnosis attacked as he tried to cross a bridge about half an hour later. These purple creatures were large, and powerful physically speaking, they proved it by knocking his gun free of his hand. With ease, one of them knocked him backwards with a back hand slap that sent him flying well over ten feet before he landed on his back and skidded another five feet to a stop. Daemar pulled himself to his feet as the second one thundered towards him, the ground below him shook as the monstrous gnosis approached. It leaped suddenly and Daemar knew it was going to try and crush him with its weight, and only a moment before it landed with a thunderous crash, he rolled out of the way and to his feet. But when he felt a sticky sensation he looked down and groaned at the goo that covered him from head to toe. What had been squishing under his feet now covered him. "Awww man! My favorite clothes! Damnit all!"

The Gnosis that fell seemed to be having trouble getting up now, like a turtle on its back. The second one however was thundering down the bridge towards him as the first one was. With a snarl, Daemar changed toward it, a flash of blue light engulfed him as the P.C.S. armor that made up most of his body activated and surrounded him. His now yellow eyes flashed as he and the Gnosis met half way, clashing head on with hands locked. The Gnosis seemed surprised, if one could actually see surprise on a face like that. It didn't think that this tiny creature could match its strength and now surpass it as Daemar was slowly beginning to push it back.

Beneath the armor Daemar's teeth were grit as he slowly but surely pushed the monster back and with a roar he hauled his opponent into the air by it's hands and threw it over the edge of the bridge into the darkness below. The other Gnosis was standing now and with a roar of rage at seeing it's companion fall it too began to charge again. Daemar held completely still as the monster charged at his back, and then at the last possible second he spun hard. His segmented arm blade popped up and extended from his forearm. In one smooth motion he cleaved through the Gnosis, sending white material flying around and past him like a wave before it vanished from this world.

Daemar panted as he lowered his arm. "THAT was for messing up my clothes..."

End of Chapter 5

Do you wish to save?


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the game of Xenosaga, that is own by Namco and Monolith (pardon the spelling) Xenogears is owned by Square-Enix and I ave no intention of using this story in any way to earn money or take credit for it's creation. My only intent is to use these characters to make a wonderfull story.

Chapter 6: Flight for life. Floor it Tony!

Nearly an hour had passed since Daemar encountered the two giant Gnosis and thus far nothing eventful had happened. Aside from the muted sounds of the Gnosis around him and the soft, squishing sound his boots made whenever he took a step, it was deathly quiet. The only thing that had happened was right after the battle, Daemar had gone to retrieve his machine gun and let out a cry of dismay. One of the Gnosis had stepped on it, leaving it broken like a child's toy, it was beyond any hope of salvage. _All those credits…….._ he thought to himself before sighing for the fifth time over the loss of the weapon. _Oh well……it's not like I can't buy another one if I wanted….and I'm more used to using the arm blade or my fists anyways. Might as well stick with what works…. And so, he continued on._

Every so often Daemar paused and frowned when he thought he heard something strange, like the sounds of battle or a Gnosis roaring. If they were cries of pain or anger he could not tell, all he knew was that it worried him and made him pick up his pace. So much so that after the fourth time he heard something, he was running. He almost didn't see the edge of the ground until his internal sensors went off, his vision flashing from red to normal like an alert. "Whoa!" He only just managed to pull himself to a halt before running full tilt over the edge. After talking a step back he leaned forward and whistled lowly. "Wow…..who'd have thought there'd be a sheer drop like this here? It doesn't seem at all natural….unless…." For a moment, Daemar directed his sensors at the "ground" below his feet and nodded. "Thought so…..this…WAS a building at one point….and I almost walked off the roof edge. Eh?" Daemar looked up slightly and saw a very welcome sight and a few moments later he heard a welcome voice over a speaker as well.

"Hey rust bucket, where ya been? And where's Ms. Vector and the others, huh?"

Below was the Elsa at the base of the one time building and appeared to be somewhat stuck by a number of tendrils that extended from the building much the way a cobweb would run between boxes that hadn't been moved in some time. With a laugh, Daemar started to climb down until he was low enough to jump onto the Elsa hull. Captain Matthews "requested" that Daemar remove some of the tendrils from the hull since he was already outside and he readily agreed. Using his arm blade, Daemar began to cut the tendrils while explaining to the Captain what had happened to him thus far. By the time the last of the tendrils were cut free, he'd finished his story. "And then I almost walked off the roof up there….that about sums it up." He said. "Hmmm….." Matthew's voice said over the speaker. "So….somehow you got separated from Ms. Vector and the others? And you haven't heard from them at all?" "Sorry Captain…..I thought I was homing in on their life signs, but I guess I was following yours." He said with a wry laugh and braced himself as the Elsa lifted off slowly. "This is no laughing matter! The Chief is in trouble!" Said Allen's voice, a moment later Daemar could hear the sounds of a brief struggle and he couldn't help but smile. Allen was worried about Shion that he'd actually climbed up to Matthew's chair to yell into the microphone, and now was being shoved off by the captain.

"Get off I said! Now then, I'm sure you've guessed we're gonna look for them, right?" "Of course," Daemar said as he walked along the hull towards the aft section of the ship. "I don't think Allen would be very happy if we just took off." Daemar could almost see Allen fuming. "Er, anyways, you should head back in now. I'd feel better if everyone were inside the ship if the Gnosis were to attack." "Why Captain, it almost sounds as if you're worried about me." Daemar said as he set about recalibrating his sensors. Since tracking the life signs of the others did no good, perhaps he could home in on Ziggy's unique radio wavelength. "No I don't!" The Captain started. "Uh…..that is……uh…..I don't want to get sued for negligence is all….I've got enough debts to worry about…" The last came out in a soft mutter that he doubted he was supposed to hear. "Don't worry about it, if the Gnosis attack then I'll probably get killed and last I checked it would be impossible for me to take legal action as a corpse. Anyways, I'm trying to track Ziggy and it'll be easier to do if my sensors aren't catching bouncing signals on the inside of the hull." He said as the sensors finished recalibrating and locked onto Ziggy's signal. "Alright, I got him. Change course and make your heading 107.23, and go slow, I don't wanna lose the signal. You get all that Tony?"

It didn't take but perhaps ten or fifteen minutes to find them and it was about then that Daemar felt uneasy. "Something isn't right…." He said to himself softly as he checked his sensors again, the others were very close by. He'd moved up towards the front of the ship to extend his forward sensor range and let out a surprised breath when the ground below started to shake. "What the? Captain, something's wrong…. There's some kind of spatial disturbance, I don't know what it is or where it's coming from but it looks like it's causing this Gnosis to disappear." Without thought Daemar switched over to his P.C.S. armor but only felt slightly comforted by the protection it offered as he continued to report. "I'm not sure what's going on, but if we don't get out of here soon we'll vanish too!" No sooner had he uttered the words than the Gnosis around them glowed and gravity failed and Daemar started to float, quickly he clamped his metallic feet down and magnetized them to keep from floating away. True he had some thrusters in his back as well as smaller thrusters concealed all over his body to act as directional control verniers but they weren't powerful enough for high speed flight. In short, when the Elsa took off, there was no way he could keep up.

"Heyyy, Ms. Vector! You still alive?" Matthews suddenly shouted, catching Daemar's attention. Indeed the group was alive if a little disorientated from the lack of gravity. A wave of relief passed through him as he saw Ziggy, MOMO and Kos-Mos unharmed, though he could tell from this distance that something was wrong. MOMO didn't seem happy and Ziggy looked concerned. "What happened?" He asked himself quietly as the Elsa opened it's catapult deck and scooped everyone aboard and shot away as the light cleared. While the giant Gnosis they had been inside was gone now, the others, which numbered in the thousands were still there and gave chase to the Elsa. Daemar cried out as the Elsa began a series of evasive maneuvers which, for a moment caused him to fall flat on his back, or as flat as he could with his feet still magnetized to the hull. But from his new angle he could see the most, if not all the Gnosis in the area were giving chase and catching up.

"Well then…. Guess I ought to do something about that huh?" He said aloud though no one would hear since he wasn't transmitting. Quickly Daemar demagnetized his feet and flipped over once the Elsa had leveled out, then shot forward toward the rear of the ship with his thrusters. They might not be good for high speed flight but they certainly could make him fly and get him to the back of the ship fast enough. As he reached the back end he quickly remagnetized his feet and clamped firmly if roughly to the hull with an "OOF!" Had he been a normal human, both his shins would be broken but all he did was add a little stress to his legs. "Nothing I can't handle……now then….it isn't much but I gotta do something." He reached down to his right thigh as a section of it opened up to reveal a handgun. Daemar hardly ever used this weapon, not because he didn't want to but rather because it was weak, it was standard equipment for the P.C.S. A basic energy blaster much like the one he'd seen Kos-Mos use, this one drew power directly from Daemar's internal generators instead of from a battery which allowed for longer use. While it was as strong as the one Kos-Mos used, against the Gnosis chasing them it would be like shooting a freight train with a BB gun. Still, he drew it and took aim. "It does do SOME damage if only a little, it's better than nothing….." He muttered to himself.

Small bolt of yellowish colored energy fired away from the rear of the Elsa as Daemar opened an audio line to the bridge. "Hey, Tony! You've got a Gnosis about to hit the ship from two o'clock high!" Instantly the ship veered away from the swooping Gnosis as Daemar fired at it. His cyborg hands allowed him to fire the semi-automatic weapon almost as fast as an automatic one. At best it only caused the massive creatures to dodge away from what must have been an annoying pain, like pulling back from a pin prick. "Daemar? What are you doing? Where are you?" Ziggy shouted over the comm link, which caused him to wince. "Easy, would ya? The transmitter is built into my ear you know, and to answer your question I'm shooting at the Gnosis from the aft section of the ship."

"You're OUTSIDE!?"

"Well, yeah. How else can I shoot the Gnosis if I'm inside the ship?" He answered and fired a quick burst of seven shots causing the nearest Gnosis to veer away but only for a moment. "Tony, floor it man! The Gnosis are still coming and I can't do a whole hell of a lot with just a blaster!" Daemar's eyes opened in surprised as blue laser suddenly rained down from above and destroyed the Gnosis chasing them. He looked up and blinked at the large red ship that had just gated out and started to open up on the Gnosis. "What the!?"

"The Durandal!" Came the surprised cry from Matthews.

By this time the rest of the group had made it to the bridge and watched in awe as the massive red ship rained down blue death upon the Gnosis_. Ziggy must have run his mechanical rear off to get to the bridge first and yell at me….. I guess he's REALLY mad at me… _He thought as he glanced back, another swarm of Gnosis were starting to catch up to the Elsa. "More huh? Time for round two!" The pistol raised and he fired as fast as his metal fingers would allow.

"Huh? Little Master, you're not gonna believe this! Some nutcase is shooting at the Gnosis from the outer hull of the Elsa!" Cried Mary as she pointed to one of the smaller displays showing the aft section of the Elsa and the Gnosis nearest it. Small, muted flashes of yellow marked the location of said nutcase as Jr. leaned closer to look. "What? Someone's actually crazy enough to stand on the hull in a space suit?" "No." Shelley said suddenly and zoomed the camera closer to show Daemar firing for all his was worth. "It's a Personal Combat System. Although I don't know who's piloting it…" "Wait, wasn't that program scrapped by Vector when the A.W.G.S. were proven to be a better type of combat machine against the Gnosis?" Mary asked with a raised eyebrow as she watched Daemar just barely manage to fend off on of the smaller Gnosis before it could touch him. "Well, whoever this guy is, he's got guts." Jr. said with a grin as he laid his hands on the two white fire control orbs next to Shelley's station. In response they started to glow the same blue as the lasers the Durandal had fired before. "And it'd be a shame to let someone like that die if we can help it, right?"

A moment later, another stream of blue light streaked away from the Durandal and cut through the chasing Gnosis. Behind the faceplate Daemar grimaced, that ship was powerful but there were simply too many Gnosis to take out. Before the Durandal arrived the Elsa only had about one minute before it was destroyed. Now they had maybe an extra three and already they had burned through half of it. "Our only hope is to find a column and gate out….but the Gnosis could either follow or drag us out again….Damn, this isn't looking good. Huh?" All the while he'd been firing as fast as he could, the yellow discharge masked the glow that was spreading through the gun. Now the barrel way bright red and even through his armor he could feel the heat. The weapon was overheated and would take longer than three minutes to cool down. With a grimace he holstered the weapon and let the internal coolant system keep the gun from melting his leg from the inside.

"I've got no choice… He said as he leaned forward slightly as if he were going to jump, the thrusters in his back opened and started to gather energy. It was clear that he meant to fly at the Gnosis and attack them directly, though he had no wish to die he certainly didn't want to stand around and wait for it to claim him. And who knew? Perhaps his attack would help the Elsa escape. "Here we….eh?" Daemar stopped and looked to his left. There stood Kos-Mos with a hand on his shoulder to stop him from taking off. With a small shake of her head she took a few steps forward past him. His yellow eyes looked bewildered. "Kos-Mos, what are you…?" He stopped when he saw that the small panels on her stomach had opened and began gathering energy into its center. Daemar was stunned, his sensors registered that the amount of energy she was gathering was staggering and that it was still building at an alarming rate. Within three seconds she had more power running through her abdomen than Daemar could handle through his whole body, and she was still charging.

Unconsciously he took two steps back with one arm held in front of him as if to defend himself. The panel on his left forearm opened and a small shield generator switched on just as the energy Kos-Mos had gathered was released. It proved to be a wise move, the initial blast caused him to fall to one knee and raise his arm. The generator created a half bubble shape as the backwash of energy smashed into him, making him to cry out in surprise. The light was so bright that he could barely make out that it was blue, but after several seconds it dimmed and Daemar gasped. The Gnosis weren't being destroyed by Kos-Mos.

She was _absorbing_ them.

When it was all over, Daemar remembered hearing nothing, not even the sound of his own breathing as she closed the weapon and turned to face him. Her eyes were blue again and she smiled slightly at him, then stepped closer and offered a hand to help him up. Shakily he took it and stood as she spoke to him, the void of space kept him from hearing her words but he was well versed in lip reading. "What you did was very brave, thank you. We should go in now." Silently she walked past him towards the hatch she used before while her eyes switched back to their normal red. Daemar stood in shook as she walked gracefully back inside, the same void of space as well as the face plate kept Kos-Mos from hearing his own reply which was spoken softly in a voice filled with fear and confusion.

"What are you…?"

End of Chapter 6

Do you wish to save?


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the game of Xenosaga, that is own by Namco and Monolith (pardon the spelling) Xenogears is owned by Square-Enix and I ave no intention of using this story in any way to earn money or take credit for it's creation. My only intent is to use these characters to make a wonderfull story.

Chapter 7: The Durandal and a much needed chance to rest

It had been awhile since Ziggy had had the need to chew Daemar out for pulling idiotic or stupid stunts. Certainly he was a cyborg that tried to deny his human side and all that it entailed, including his emotions. But that didn't stop him from making use of a colorful vocabulary that his drill instructor back on Earth would be envious to have and more than a little scared to use. In short, when the elevator stopped on the Durandal's bridge Daemar stood as far from Ziggy and Kos-Mos as he could manage. Which meant he stood in the far corner like a shunned puppy with his eyes downcast and his hands folded in front of him. It wasn't Ziggy's chewing out that made him this way, he'd endured worse but it certainly did help. It wasn't mostly Kos-Mos that made him cautious, every time she looked his way since they returned to the Elsa made him jump if he noticed, and if he didn't then he'd jump higher once he did. His mind was racing to try and grasp what he'd just seen, he knew as well as the others that Kos-Mos was a battle android, a machine made to combat the Gnosis. And she did it well, but seeing just how destructive she could be had shaken him quite a bit, but at the same time a part of him was utterly fascinated by her. He felt affection for someone who's power far outstripped his own, part of him wanted to run and stay as far away as he could and the other wanted to stay by her as long as possible.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't notice when Shion had introduced him, Ziggy and MOMO to Jr. In fact it was MOMO who caught his attention by kneeling down to look up into his eyes and waving. "Daemar, are you ok?" "Huh? What?" He said dumbly and focused his eyes while looking up. Everyone was staring at him, the Elsa crew, Shion and her party, Ziggy, MOMO, Jr. and most of the bridge crew who could spare a moment for this strange young man. Understandably, Daemar's face turned red under the scrutiny as he answered. "Oh, uh….yeah…I'm good. Thanks…." That got a few raised eyebrows but everyone stopped looking at him, almost everyone.

"So, you're the one with the P.C.S. am I right?" Jr. asked as he strode up to him and frowned slightly. "Yes….I am…." Daemar said a little warily, why was this kid staring at him like that? Jr. broke out into a grin and extended his hand. "Pleasure to meet ya! I'm Jr. and I gotta say, what you did on the Elsa was the craziest thing I've seen in a long time!" Daemar's face fell a bit as he shook Jr.s hand and muttered. "Oh no….not you too….." And was surprised by the next reply. "And the coolest! I don't think I've ever seen anyone gutsy enough to shoot at ship sized Gnosis with only a handgun!" If Jr.s grin were any larger his head would split in two, Daemar's face was a mask of confusion as he looked up at Mary and Shelley who looked at Jr. with a mixture of fondness and exasperation.

In return Mary laughed. "Sorry, Little Master here likes to watch a lot of those old action flicks, the really cheesy John Woo films too." Jr. spun on his heel and spoke up quickly. "John Woo isn't cheesy!" Then blinked and looked back at the taller man with a grin, Daemar had said the exact same thing at the exact same moment. This caused everyone to stare at him again, but this time he glared back. "Hey, it may be cheesy by today's standards but you forget, I grew up on those so called "cheesy action flicks" so there. And some of the movies today aren't up to snuff if you ask me. "Me, Lucy and the asteroid" ? What the heck kinda movie is that?" He finished by crossing his arms and looking away, glaring at nothing in particular. This brought a small smile to Ziggy's lips, a rare thing that he only seemed to show when his younger partner suffered from stubborn spells as he was now or "foot in mouth" disease. "Bah…." He said quietly. "I'm going to do…..something….call me if you need me." And without another word he stepped onto the elevator and descended to the dock floor muttering to himself. "And I suppose next they'll tell me that the Soul Caliber series sucked? Bah….bah I say!"

The guards on duty as well as the few workers waiting for the train watched him warily as he muttered to himself and paced near the bolted down seats. It was already common knowledge that the Elsa had come from the inside of a giant Gnosis and that Daemar was among the passengers. They seemed worried that his prolonged exposure to the Gnosis might be effecting his mental balance, and if so they wanted to be as far away from him as possible if he snapped. Even muttering to himself he could pick up on the mood and it only made his mood worse, by the time he arrived at the Residential section he'd stopped talking but marched down the center of the corridors with a look on his face that plainly said. "Either get the hell out of my way or I'll walk through you." In fact it wasn't until the next day when Ziggy called him up to the Isolation Area that his bad mood disappeared.

Quietly he stood at the back of the group as Jr. explained what the Zohar emulators were, but in all honesty they held little interest to him. _Big gold plates…..whoop dee doo…._ He thought to himself. However what lay beyond the sealed door perplexed him greatly, his sensors couldn't penetrate the doors or the walls around it. Whether it was interference from the Zohar emulators or a measure of security by the Durandal, he couldn't tell, but it made him that much more curious. "What's in the room across from here?" MOMO said, giving rise to Daemar's comment. "Yeah Jr., what's in there?" The small red headed boy stared at them seriously as he replied. "Nothing pleasant, I'll tell you that much." Shion quirked an eyebrow and planted a fist on her hip. "So you're not going to show us?" Jr. still looked serious as he answered and shook his head. "Trust me, it ain't something you'd want to see."

_Well that just makes me even MORE curious….._ Daemar thought with a frown as Shion continued to badger the kid until he finally opened the door and looked back at them. "Well… I guess if you want to see it that badly…" And proceeded inside. _Yes! I am soooo buying you a drink Shion!_ Daemar thought victoriously as he followed the group in, but his smile faded to a look of shock and horror. "My god….."

"I warned you, you weren't gonna like it, didn't I?" The lack of smugness in Jr.s voice made Daemar look away from the sight held in the glass containers. _Those people…..those people are….._ "All of these specimens appear to be humans whose bodies turned into Gnosis." Kos-Mos said calmly as if she'd seen it a thousand times before. Well, it did make sense after all since Kos-Mos probably had all the data of every case in which a person partly transformed into a Gnosis hard wired into her memory core. Unlike Daemar who had only heard about it with Ziggy but dismissed them as nothing more than rumors, like the tabloids on Earth. Jr. continued to explain what had happened to these people, about the Gnosis and how they arrived in this world. Daemar paid it little mind since he already knew about the Gnosis being made of salt, but what disturbed him was when Jr. said that people who survived Gnosis encounters became Gnosis themselves. _Could that happen to me? I mean…I did TOUCH the Gnosis when I fought them…..but….maybe it won't count. After all I am a cyborg….they didn't touch my flesh…but….still….._ His worried musings were interrupted when Ziggy touched his shoulder.

"Hmm?" Daemar looked up and opened his mouth to speak but closed it a moment later when Ziggy shook his head and nodded toward the doors they had come through just as MOMO passed through them. Understanding dawned on his face, he nodded and silently, took his leave to keep watch on MOMO. Daemar knew that they were safe on the Durandal but Ziggy was never one to take chances if it could be avoided, they had both taken on the mission to protect MOMO, which meant at least one of them had to be with her. As he approached the train Daemar stopped and tapped the shoulder of a nearby worker. "Excuse me, did a young Realian with reddish pink hair and yellow eyes pass by?" The worker nodded and pointed at the train. "Yeah, she just came by and took a train, she looked kinda sad about something. Maybe she wanted to be alone?" "Yeah…maybe…. Thanks." Daemar said and stepped into the train.

Five minutes later he arrived at the park area and quickly confirmed that MOMO had passed through looking as though the weight of the world had been dumped onto her shoulders. A minute later he found her sitting on a bench by herself, one of her hands was open and the tiny environmental bugs lit on her hand looking for all the world like a lightning bug to him. Quietly he approached and listened to her softly spoken words. " What do you all think…? Joachim Mizrahi, the lunatic… Was daddy really like that? Since daddy built us, does that mean Realians are bad people, too?" His heart went out to the little Realian, for a moment he thought of the past before he became a cyborg. _She's so much like my little sister…..always worrying about what she can't control…_ He fought the urge to hug her protectively and spoke up. "I don't think so…..I've met a lot of Realians and I haven't seen a single bad one yet, you included."

"Oh, Daemar!" MOMO jumped slightly and looked back at him for a moment then forward again with a small sigh. "You scared me….." He frowned. "I'm sorry…. I didn't mean to. But, it's true you know. Realians aren't bad people." He said gently as he approached the bench, his sensor went off, alerting him to the arrival of Shion and Kos-Mos. Without looking back he waved them over. "But what about the Miltian Conflict? Realians did bad things! They hurt people, killed them!" Daemar winced at the look on her face, it was filled with the kind of pain that didn't want to go away. "Well…." He started softly. "I wasn't really around for all that….I was in a 4,000 year old cold sleep pod at the time. I was on Militia true…but I wasn't really aware of it. In fact, my first real memories of this time frame started when I work up on the Dammurung four years later." His words did little to comfort her. "But…they said he was crazy! I… Daddy wasn't a lunatic. …I don't even know what I am…." She finished softly and looking about to burst into tears.

"Identity diffusion…" Shion said suddenly, causing both Daemar and MOMO to look up. Daemar gratefully, MOMO a little confused. "The eternal dilemma." She continued as she reached out a hand for one of the firefly like nanomachines to land on. "Do you know about the environmental bugs onboard this ship? They're actually nanomachines, you know, used to keep enclosed spaces like this clean." She said in a matter of factly voice as a bug hovered over her hand before landing. "I'd say that…of all the things Professor Mizrahi – or anyone else – created, they rank up there pretty high. These bugs may be man-made, but they function as if they've existed all along. Almost as if they were meant to be…" Daemar nodded and spoke. "Yeah, I have nanos running through me too. I trust that technology implicitly, it's saved my life more times than I can remember. Now, honestly. Do I look like a man who would trust the technology of a crazy man? Of course not, so Joachim Mizrahi can't be crazy, right?" He finished with a grin that faltered under Shion's stare, which prompted him to mutter softly. "What? I was only tryin' to help…"

Shion looked back to MOMO and continued as if Daemar hadn't spoken. "I think Realians are the same. The only difference between us, is the length of our histories. But regardless of our origins, each one of us has an important role to fulfill in this world. Besides, I really doubt Dr. Mizrahi was a dangerous person like everyone makes him out to be. And it's not just because of the environmental bugs. The work he did on Realians was incredibly insightful." Daemar glared at her quietly and was tempted to stick his tongue out at her when Kos-Mos chimed in. "The fundamental Gnosis research Professor Mizrahi left behind played a critical role in the development of modern anti-Gnosis technology. "

_True…without it, I wouldn't be using P.C.S. armor. Likely I'd have the same parts as Ziggy, nothing wrong with that but I rather like looking as human as possible instead of standing out with those piston legs…_ He thoughts as Shion spoke. "Thanks for the backup, KOS-MOS! I'm really glad to see you react like that. Empathizing with the feelings of others is a major factor in human relationships." His jaw dropped. _She did NOT just say that…….Oh man…she must be a real riot at parties… _He missed Kos-Mos' reply but caught MOMO's giggle and breathed a soft sigh of relief. _Good….at least she's smiling again. Hmmm?_ Daemar glanced up as Allen came running up and quickly explained that the Durandal would take them to Second Militia after they docked with the Kukai Foundation. And also that the Durandal was better equipped for the trip than the Elsa and that their rooms had Jacuzzis AND minibars all in one breath.

"Well, at least someone's happy…." He said softly to himself and shook his head as Ziggy arrived and came over to Daemar. "Everything ok?" "Yeah, everything's fine Z. MOMO's happy, Allen's happy, EVERYONE'S happy." He sighed softly for a moment and rubbed his neck with one hand then looked up at Ziggy. "Hey, Z? I'm starting to feel tired all of a sudden, I guess fighting the Gnosis back there is finally starting to catch up to me." _Not to mention that fact that my foul mood had me so wound up that I couldn't relax…._ "I'm going to go catch some sleep, seems like we've got the chance to rest for awhile. You mind taking over?" He asked apologetically. Ziggy nodded, he understood that his partner was still relatively new to the cyborg world and still felt the urge to sleep like a normal human. "Of course, but don't sleep too long. I've no intention of trying to wake you up like the last time." Daemar stared at him flatly for a moment, remembering the incident, in which Ziggy had to splash him with hot water since cold had failed, before turning to walk away. "Yeah yeah, don't worry. I'll only sleep a few hours, it's all I need anyways."

The trip to the Residential Area took longer than he thought, or perhaps it was a measure of how tired he was. Exhaustion roared through him unchecked as his vision became blurry and his balance off, he held a hand out to the wall as he stumbled down the corridor. "What the hell? Why am I so tired all of a sudden….is my generator acting up?" It grew hard to remain focused until he finally came to a halt, still leaning against the wall. As he went, workers and residents watched him worriedly and asked him if he was all right and he'd replied that he just needed sleep. Finally a pair of workers held him up and helped him walk to his room while he murmured apologies for being a burden. The last thing he remembered was the workers depositing him on his bed carefully and only leaving the room after he promised to go for maintenance once he regained some of his strength. Once they were gone he fumbled for the control panel next to his bed and turned the lights off. He was asleep before his head started to fall to the pillow.

End of Chapter 7

Do you wish to save?


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the game of Xenosaga, that is own by Namco and Monolith (pardon the spelling) Xenogears is owned by Square-Enix and I ave no intention of using this story in any way to earn money or take credit for it's creation. My only intent is to use these characters to make a wonderfull story.

Chapter 8: Sunny beaches, hostile takeovers and one really trippy ride

Thunder rumbled across the mid-afternoon sky as the clouds that had been gathering since that morning began to pour down rain. Light at first but soon it grew to a steady drizzle, he paid it no mind though, after all he had a job to do. He checked his gear for what seemed to him to be the thousandth time, his assault rifle was still slung over his shoulder. He still had seven clips of ammo on his upper body armor, his handgun was in its thigh holster with ammo clips and his knife hung hilt down on the left side of his chest for quick and easy access. The three micro-rockets he carried in a special holster on his left leg didn't hinder him in the least. All the members of his squad had them and with good reason, only two members of the unit actually had anti-armor rocket launchers but couldn't carry enough ammo on their persons to effectively reload and fire in combat, not to mention they wouldn't have any other weapons. That problem was easily solved by having everyone carry a few rockets to assist in speed reloading, or take the launcher themselves if need be. In all, everything was ready.

He glanced up at the sky as the rain grew heavier and growled, he never liked it, to him it always seemed a sign of bad luck. He shook his head and nodded to his teammates. In return they scattered and hid amongst the damaged buildings that had once been a small town and prepared themselves for the ambush to come. Three days had passed since they received this latest mission, and already HQ was demanding results, before the mission started no less! A grimace crossed his lips as he ducked into a house that was mostly intact and crouched next to the remnants of the door that had been riddled with machine gun fire. "Alpha team in position, we'll move on your signal." Came the soft call over the radio, good, that meant that the four man group with control over the bridge demo charges was ready to blow the bridge once the enemy armor unit crossed. "Charlie team in position, ready to move on your order, sir." The third team was ready, a pair of two man teams, each with rocket launchers. One group up in the partly destroyed church tower and the other at the gate on the other side of town to mow down any enemies who tried to flee. That just left Bravo team who would be the hopper team. Four men with light armor who's main objective was to move around the town and fire from as many locations as possible without the enemy knowing how many their really were, that would make them seem like an army instead of four men, thus the term hopper. And then that left him as the team leader free to move about as he chose to oversee and conduct this mission. It was an airtight ambush with little chance of the enemy escaping, even if they made it to the gate out of town they'd have to go through an allied minefield. Just another routine operation in conflicted territory, another normal day.

"_So, why did everything go so horribly wrong, hmmm?"_ said the dark figure behind him.

Daemar opened his eyes and groaned, even the little light from the bedside panel hurt his eyes. He turned over onto his back and let another long groan while his eyes tried to focus and stay open at the same time, his internal clock told him that he'd only been asleep for five hours which meant it was still nighttime on the Durandal. _No need to be up then…._ he thought fuzzily and draped his metallic arm over his eyes, letting himself drift back to sleep. He awoke again a few hours later and looked around the room a moment before closing his eyes again. _Meh….Ziggy knows that I tend to sleep for a long time….he'll understand. Besides I'm sure MOMO can keep him company just as well as I can……wait….._ He opened one eye and looked towards the door then frowned. "I could have sworn I saw a pair of glowing blue eyes a moment ago……" He mumbled to himself then shook his head and put it from his mind, there was no need thinking about tricks the mind played when one was tired, so he turned onto his left side and drifted off into a hazy half sleep.

The owner of those blue eyes opened them again and watched the sleeping cyborg mutter as dreams of his past drifted through his sleep-fogged brain. A small, gentle smile pulled the lips of the blue eyed one. He mumbled to himself and turned over once, then again back toward the watching eyes. "No…….stay there……I'll go….." He said as his face took on a frown of worry. "To dangerous for you……I'll be fine alone….." The smile faded away and the lips opened slightly as if to speak but didn't, instead the blue eyed figure walked quietly to the bed.

Daemar's mind was almost delirious as strange dream images passed before his hazy vision, images of people from his past, of his life and the things he'd done. The images took a turn towards the darker events of his life, causing him to sweat and mutter louder. "No….stay away…..I don't want to see this…….no…no…..no!" He flinched when he felt something touch his face and very nearly woke up until he heard a gentle voice in his ear. "Shhhh, it's alright. I'm here now, I won't let anything hurt you. Hush now, you're safe with me." The images faded into blissful darkness as the gentle touch continued to stroke his face and hair, the voice continued it's to speak calming words until it dissolved into a soft crooning song that was oddly soothing. Daemar's eyes opened once and saw the owner of the blue eyes smiling down at him, he opened his mouth to speak and was stopped by a finger to his lips. "Shhhh." Was all she said before bending down and placing a soft kiss on his lips. Daemar bolted upright and looked about the dark room wildly before hitting the bed side panel with a little more force than needed. Harsh white light flooded the room, his vision wasn't effected though and all of the shadows of the room were banished, any secret hidden in the room now revealed.

He was alone.

"What?" He said in confusion and a little in dismay. "I could have sworn….." He cut off as the door chimed, quickly he got up and crossed the room and pushed the OPEN button. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" He started then looked up at Ziggy then down at MOMO, both were frowning at him. "Yes we do, Ziggy said you'd only be asleep a few hours." MOMO said. "Yeah, so what? I know I've been down a little longer than I said but I was really-" The little Realian's foot stamping stopped him mid sentence. "You've been asleep for 16 hours! The Durandal already docked at the Kukai foundation and everyone already LEFT." She said as she planted her fist on her hips. "Uh, I'm sorry?" Daemar said in a confused tone as he checked his internal clock. _What the?! I really was asleep for sixteen hours! But….why do I still feel run down?_ His silent musings were cut short as MOMO's eyes widened. "You don't remember, do you?" The still confused look on his face answered her question, she crossed her arms as she scolded him. "Before you went to bed you promised that we'd have fun once we got to the Kukai Foundation, PROMISED." Then she set her face to a pout that would have been cute, bordering on hilarious if Daemar hadn't been the cause.

He looked up at Ziggy who had stayed silent and merely watched with cold steely eyes. "I….did I promise that?" He asked softly. Ziggy didn't answer, instead he continued to stare at his younger partner until he relented and nodded. Kneeling in front of MOMO so he could look her in the eye he spoke. "I'm sorry MOMO…..I was really tired yesterday, it's not often that I get a chance to sleep. So, if I forgot my promise it wasn't because I didn't want to have fun, it was because I was really run down." MOMO continued to pout and it seemed as though she might stick out her tongue at any moment. "Listen, I'll make it up to you. OK? Let's go do something, right now." Her face lost its pout but she kept her arms crossed and looked at him sideways as if not trusting his words. "Really?" She said in a disbelieving tone. "Yes really, anything you want."

"Welllllll…." She said slowly as she uncrossed her arms. "….Okay….but you OWE me." She put one fist on her hip and used the other hand to point at his face to illustrate her point. Daemar let out a relieved sigh before going on. "Yeah, I owe you. Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye." MOMO blinked in surprise. "Stick a needle in your eye? Why would you want to do that?" She asked in a confused voice. "Er….sorry, something from my childhood. It basically means that I'd rather suffer great pain before breaking my word to you." He said as he stood and looked back into the room and frowned then looked back, he thought he'd schooled his face to it's normal calm but still Ziggy spoke. "Is something the matter?"

"Hmmm?" Daemar said and blinked. "You seem worried about something, did anything happen last night?" "Well….I." He paused_. I what? Could have sworn that Kos-Mos was here in my room last night? That she held my head in her lap and stroked my hair while I slept and even kissed my when I woke up? That was a dream….just a dream._ He considered for a moment then shook his head. "No…..nothing….just a strange dream…that's all. _It was a dream…wasn't it?_ "In any case, I'm heading to the Foundation to contact the Federation and let them know what our current situation is. Take MOMO and meet up with the others, I'll contact you as soon as I'm finished." Ziggy said, to which Daemar nodded then stepped out of the room and walked with MOMO toward the train that would take them to the dock. He looked down when she poked his arm. "Hmm? Yes MOMO, what is it?" He asked and in response was handed a small bag by a smiling MOMO. "Uh, what's this for?" He asked. "You'll see." She said with a hint of mischief in her voice.

Less than an hour later Daemar stood on Gaignun's private beach wearing a pair of light brown sandals and a pair bright yellow swim trunks with smiley faces printed on it. His arms were crossed over his chest and he looked less than thrilled to be wearing so little. His arms and legs were both covered by the holographic image of real flesh but did little to brighten his mood. The others, Allen, chaos, Jr. and MOMO were splashing and playing in the water while Shion sat in a beach chair under an umbrella while working on her U.M.N. device. For a moment she looked up at him and couldn't help but chuckle at the scowl on his face. "Why don't you go and play with the others?" The muscle in Daemar's left cheek, just below his eye, twitched as he answered flatly. "I don't DO water….." Shion covered her mouth to suppress the laugh that wanted to come out before speaking again. "Not even a little? C'mon, how often do you get a chance to go to a private beach and have fun?" Now his left eyebrow twitched, would she ever leave well enough alone? "I don't see you having any fun…." He said quietly as he glanced out of the corner of his eye at her. He had to admit she did have a nice figure, especially now that she was wearing that bikini instead of her uniform… _What are you doing?! Don't you dare ogle her!_ He shouted at himself mentally while Shion answered. "I don't really have time for that sort of thing…..there are some things about Kos-Mos that are bothering me…" _You and me both sister…_ He thought. "Anyways, don't let me stop you from having fun." She made a shooing motion with her hand to try and make him leave but he stayed anchored to his spot. "No, thank you. It's bad enough MOMO got me to wear these……things."

Shion looked at him with her head slightly tilted. "Oh? Why not? Aren't you waterproof?" Daemar frowned at her as he responded. "Yes I am, but my holographic projectors aren't and I'd rather not short them out thank you very much." Shion frowned back and put a fist on her hip. "Don't get angry at me, it's not my fault if you want to stand there like a statue instead of relaxing. If all that's stopping you are those silly holograms around your limbs, just turn them off and-" She cut off with a small yelp as Daemar suddenly turned fully and glared at her with fists curled. He didn't say anything he just glared at her the way Ziggy glared at him before then turned on his heel and trod closer to the water to watch the others. Shion in return frowned once she got her heart to slow down and stuck her tongue out at his back then continued to work.

Daemar grumbled mentally as he watched his newfound friends playing in the surf. _Excuse me if I don't want to show off my cybernetic parts when I'm all but naked! I have SOME dignity thank you very much. Humph! She thinks she knows best just because she works at Vector. "Oh, look at me, I'm Shion and I know more than you." BAH!_ His brow furrowed and he started grumbling under his breath, not realizing that he was starting to shake. MOMO noticed from the water and quickly went over to Jr. and whispered to him, chaos and Allen watched quietly as Jr. started to grin_. Sure, it's easy for you to flaunt your body in that bikini, yours is WHOLE. Did you ever think that maybe I don't want to strut my stuff? No! Why I'll bet that-_ Daemar blinked and took a step back and put a hand to his nose, which stung slightly. He blinked again when he realized what had happened by the smiles and grins that were plastered on the faces of the chaos, MOMO, Allen and Jr. One of them, probably Jr. by the grin that split his face, had launched a beach ball at his head and he'd been so busy being grouchy that he never saw it coming.

His face darkened as he picked up the beach ball. For a moment it seemed like he might pop it in his hands but instead he took a breath and let it out slowly. _Shion is right…I don't get the chance to rest and relax that often. I should take it, besides there's plenty of things to do at the beach that don't involve water._ He tossed the ball up and down in one hand and suddenly grinned. "Anyone know how to play volley ball?"

Forty five minutes and two victories later Daemar sat in the sand with his left leg stretched out and the other bent while he leaned back on his left hand with the other draped over his bent knee, watching the others play. He'd teamed up with chaos and put MOMO and Jr. on the other team with Allen as the ref. MOMO had at first complained that it wasn't fair since Daemar and chaos were both taller than she and Jr. to which Daemar responded. "Just because we have the advantage in height doesn't mean you can't win, a seemingly unfair advantage often inspires the other team to work that much harder to win." "He does have a point." chaos added thoughtfully with a nod. MOMO fumed for a few moments before beginning the match. And as Daemar had said, MOMO and Jr. worked that much harder to try and win. He could count the number of times that Jr. leaped up and spiked the ball so hard that chaos almost didn't recover it. A few times he didn't. Though it had been pretty amazing when MOMO managed to leap high enough to spike the ball, Daemar had been so stunned that he missed recovering the ball altogether. The first game went to chaos and himself, the second to Jr. and MOMO. The last game was very close, coming down to the last point; in fact it had taken chaos and Daemar almost a full five minutes to score the last point.

He smiled then and chuckled softly. _I think my arm might have fallen out of the socket if I'd have kept going. Hmmm, I wonder where Ziggy is? He's been gone a long time, well there was a lot to report and he probably decided to walk back instead of flagging down a taxi._ He nodded to himself and leaned back until he was lying in the sand looking up at the dome of the Foundation. _Look at those stars…back home a view like that from a beach would be something you could only see in the movies…_ He sighed softly and let his thoughts roam, every so often he'd look up to be sure MOMO was ok before going back to thinking. After a time he sat up and looked over at Shion then opened his mouth to speak. "Hey Shion…." But paused when he noticed Allen commenting on the beach to cover for spouting off a rumor about Jr. origins. That caused Jr. to smile a little and produce a remote that controlled the weather. Thunder rumbled overhead as the lights dimmed, simulating clouds rolling in before a storm. Daemar sneered and muttered. "I hate rain…" He was surprised when Shion voiced a similar complaint, though she looked a little off, almost scared. Another crack of thunder sounded, much louder this time which caused her to suddenly yelp aloud and crouch down, covering her ears as she shouted. "Stop it!! I hate thunder!!" Jr. quickly switched off the thunder. "I'm sorry Shion…..I didn't mean to…."

Quietly Daemar stood and made his way to the dressing room, suddenly uncomfortable. He paused at the small locker that held his clothing, placing his hands on the cool metal surface then leaning forward to place his forehead there as well. _Why did I say that…? I haven't thought that in years…_ He didn't hear chaos come in until he spoke. "Is there some reason why you don't like the water?" He asked in his usual soft tone. Daemar turned his head to look at the boy from the corner of his eye. "I don't hate the water…I just don't want to go in it. Ok?" chaos nodded then headed for his own locker. "Of course, I understand. Not everyone can swim, and it must be that much harder with a cyborg body…" Daemar quickly turned and raised his voice. "That's not it!" He stopped and looked away, his shoulders dropping. "I can swim…I used to love it in fact…" chaos watched him quietly for a moment then turned to face him. "So, why then, if I may ask?"

A sigh escaped the young man's lips. "I'm…ashamed of my body…of what's underneath." He held up an arm to illustrate though chaos seemed slightly confused. "But, we've all seen your arms without holograms before…." He stopped when Daemar shook his head. "No…it's here, where the flesh connects to the metal… I don't like how it looks….I know the engineers at Vector didn't do a rushed patch job on me, they took four long years putting me back together again before I woke up so I'd feel as normal as possible when I did. But…." He paused and looked as though he wouldn't continue, chaos spoke gently. "It's alright if you don't want to tell me everything, I understand."

Daemar shook his head. "No…. I'll finish…." He took a breath then continued on. "You see…I was one of the first combat cyborgs ever constructed, not here in this star cluster but back on Earth, what you call Lost Jerusalem. I didn't look like this, I was… grotesque, horribly misshapen. More machine than man, more weapon than machine…..I looked nothing like this. Now…seeing it, where the flesh and metal connect only serves as a painful reminder of what I once was. No matter how pretty the package is today, I can't escape my past…." He finished his story then turned and opened his locker, chaos spoke as he pulled out his pants. "Why did you choose to tell me this?" The longhaired man shrugged. "I dunno…I guess you're the most understanding of the people present here. I don't know why but sometimes I feel like I can tell you anything, like a brother. Strange huh?" chaos smiled. "Maybe so, but what about Ziggy? Wouldn't he be the best choice since he is a cyborg as well?" Daemar shook his head and pulled a towel from the locker and started to dry off. "We may both be cyborgs but that's where the similarities end, Ziggy strives to forget his human side. I don't, as much pain as it holds for me, it makes me what I am today and I don't want to lose that. Allen, Jr. and Shion don't understand because they are fully human and have never had need of cybernetic parts. I didn't die like Ziggy did, I was badly wounded and it was through cybernetic intervention that I survived."

"And MOMO?" The silver haired youth asked.

"No…she's too young. I know that she's intelligent for her age but she's just to young for me to confess my troubles to. Sure, she might understand to some degree since she's a Realian, but….not fully like me. I mean, have you ever heard of a cyborg Realian?" He shook his head ruefully and finished drying off, he pulled off his sandals and sat down on the bench. "So, that leaves you. I'm sorry though, I didn't mean to just dump it all on you." He considered for a moment then continued. "I guess the other reason I told you is that I needed to let it out…no one else knows about this, not even Z." Daemar paused a moment as a thought came to him. "I've been carrying this around in my head for the last ten years, I had to say something sometime, right?" chaos never got the chance to answer as Allen came in and passed them with a smile and continued to his locker. Daemar made sure he was out of ear shot before whispering. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone else about this…." chaos smiled understandingly and nodded. "Of course." With that Daemar quickly got dressed and headed outside to wait for MOMO and the others.

Ziggy ran into the group as they were about to leave the beach and gave his general report to Daemar, citing that his and Daemar's services were requested until they could get to Second Milita. Ziggy, MOMO and the others made ready to head to Sector 27 to rest up at the inn though MOMO had other plans for Daemar. Before they could set out, Daemar pulled Shion aside to speak with her privately. "Listen Shion….I'm sorry about what I said before…back on the beach. I shouldn't have gotten mad at you, I was….I am still having some problems that I need to work through. But that's no excuse to take it out on you." Shion looked surprised but after a few moments she smiled and patted his shoulder. "It's alright, I understand. We all have troubles that we have to figure out. I accept you apology and I offer a sympathetic ear if you ever need to talk." Daemar glanced over at chaos and the others for a moment then smiled back at her. "Thanks, I'll remember that. Oh, one more thing."

"Yes?" She asked having half way turned to go.

"I know this may sound strange but…where was Kos-Mos last night?" Shion blinked. "Kos-Mos? She was in her maintenance pod on the Elsa all night, why do you ask?" Daemar considered for a moment with a frown then shook his head. "No reason….I guess it was just a dream after all….." Shion turned back, now interested. "Really? You had a dream about Kos-Mos? What was it?" He looked away for a moment and almost stepped back. "Uh…nothing really…..I just thought I saw her in my room is all." He said, hoping that the half-truth would throw her off this track. Shion looked a little skeptical but let it go. "Alright then, well I'm heading to the Inn to get some sleep. Have fun in the city with MOMO." She said with a grin then walked off as he sputtered. "Wha? What are you…..oh…." He stopped when he saw MOMO waving at him with a cheerful expression on her face, behind her was Ziggy who looked slightly exasperated. Apparently she managed to convince him to go along as well. "Cheer up, it won't be that bad right?" chaos said as he moved a little closer and smiled. "At least there won't be any water, right?"

"Yeah yeah…." Daemar muttered and headed toward his partner and ward.

The next day Daemar wearily got up bed and looked out the window of the Inn that he and the others were staying on courtesy of Gaignun Kukai. He'd only laid down an hour before, Ziggy insisted that they guard MOMO's room through the night even if it meant not sleeping. And since Daemar had broken his word and slept for 16 hours rather than two or three, he got the honor of staying up the night after coming back from a full day of activity about the city. Now he sat facing the window with his elbows on his knees, bags under his eyes and a slight headache. "Maybe it's time for an upgrade…I can't understand how I'm feeling down. I slept sixteen hours, which is more than enough for the nanos to replenish their energy source as well as mine. I should have been running figure eight's around Z and MOMO yesterday…" He sighed and stood which caused his spine to pop loudly. "Ow…." He muttered and rubbed his back as he made his way to the bathroom to wash his face.

A couple of hours later he found himself wandering the 27th Sector on his own, MOMO and Ziggy had gone with the others to the Durandal, he wanted to see if he could find a new weapon to replace the one he'd lost on the cathedral ship. He was halfway through checking the inventory of the A.W.G.S. weapon shop when his sensors picked up a torpedo exploding outside the Foundation. No one else seemed to be in a state of alert yet and so looked at him strangely when he bolted out of the shop and looked up through the massive dome. _What the hell? Federation ships? What are they doing here, and firing on a colony no less! Wait, that formation….oh bloody hell…_ He could see clearly that they were going to invade soon and with the colony surrounded the Durandal couldn't disembark without being torn to shreds first and there certainly was enough Federation firepower present to make that a very real possibility. Daemar tore down the street making use of his enhanced speed rather than holding back. _I've gotta get to the Durandal bridge!_ He thought as he dodged around people and in a few cases even leaping clear over them as he rushed toward the dock area to catch a shuttle back to the Durandal.

He only got about five steps off the shuttle before the Federation troops he failed to notice surrounded him.

In his haste Daemar didn't conceal his metallic arms and was easy to pick out once he came bounding off the shuttle. "HALT!" Came the cry and in surprise Daemar stopped and blinked, the Durandal's dock was swarming with Federation troops, power suits, and even an A.W.G.S. unit. Every weapon within 20 meters was aimed at him. "Well shit…." He muttered as he raised his hands. "Captain Roman, we've captured the second cyborg that was sent to retrieve the 100- series Realian." The leader of the soldiers said into a wrist communicator. "Any casualties?" Roman's voice asked in return. "No ma'am, he was in such a rush to get back to the Durandal that he didn't see us until I shouted halt, we took him completely by surprise." Daemar could almost see the Roman woman nodding as she spoke. "Very good, bring him to the Durandal's residential section, we'll put him in with the others." "Yes, ma'am. Hmph, I didn't think a cyborg would be stupid enough to walk into an ambush like this." The leader said with a grin.

"Hey! You're only saying that because my hands are cuffed behind my back and there's at least thirty weapons pointed at me! And it wasn't an ambush! You were just as surprised as I was!!" Daemar shouted then heard a small sigh from the communicator. "Lieutenant, I'll thank you to keep your personal comments to yourself." Came Captain Roman's voice, the Lieutenant grimaced. "Yes ma'am. Sorry ma'am. We'll bring him right away." He cut the line and motioned to the other soldiers to push him towards the waiting train. Ten minutes later Daemar was shoved into the room with the others with the cuffs still on, Ziggy was likewise cuffed.

"Daemar! Are you alright?" Shion asked as he stumbled in then turned and kicked the now locked door. "Yeah I'm alright…they caught me coming off the shuttle…it was stupid of me to come running like that…but when I saw the fleet above the colony dome…." He stopped and sighed, shaking his head and in general feeling like a fool as he dropped into an empty chair and sat on the edge. "So, anybody know what's going on or is it "Invade the Kukai Foundation" day?"

The group quickly recapped the entire situation, which caused Daemar's jaw to drop by increments as the story unfolded. "That's crazy!" He said when they finished. "The Durandal didn't destroy the Woglinde…Uh…you didn't attack the Woglinde, did you?" He asked Jr. and got a smack on the back of his head from the red haired boy. "Well of course NOT! Shion and Allen where there, the Woglinde was attacked by Gnosis!" Daemar glowered at the boy for a moment. "Ok, ok…just asking, jeez…no need to get violent…so, what are we gonna do now?" He asked and cast his gaze about the room, when no one answered he raised an eyebrow. "We are going to do SOMETHING, aren't we?" Ziggy was the one to respond. "There's not much we can do at this point, we can't even break out of here. You and I are the only ones with weapons and as you can see the handcuffs they put on us were designed for restraining cyborgs." Daemar grumbled and leaned back in his seat. "Well….nuts…."

Leaning forward with his head down in thought, Daemar accessed his internal systems and checked the specs of his nanomachines. _It's just a hunch but I think I might be able to do something with these handcuffs…..ah ha! I was right, alright_ _get going little guys! _Already a number of his nanomachines were rising through tiny ports on his arms and heading for the cuffs on his wrists, he blinked when a woman came in and announced that the preliminary inquiry was about to begin. From her voice he recognized her as Roman, the leader of the Federation troops here. A brief glance at the solider that came in with her produced a small "humph" of contempt. _I could take him, even with my handcuffs…_ Daemar watched Lapis sit down at the table that Shion and MOMO were seated at and only stayed where he was because of Ziggy's proximity to them.

Lapis watched them all for a moment silently then placed her hands on the table and spoke in a serious tone. "I am an agent working for Representative Helmer of the Second Miltian Parliament." The produced a round of startled looks and a gasp from Shion who quickly looked at the solider, expecting a negative response and getting a nod in return. "He's also with us." Lapis started. "We can go into detail later, but for now I'll just debrief you on the current situation." She motioned to the guard who took his post at the door though it seemed it was more to keep someone from listening than keeping the group in. "You are presently under the custody of the Federation government and the military. I'll be honest with you. The way things are now, within a few hours, she'll be turned over to anti-Miltian forces, specifically the U-TIC Organization. Soon after, the Second Miltian government will be stripped of all its authority." Daemar stood up quickly and looked dead at Lapis. "You aren't going to let that happen!" He said in a raised voice, he could care less about what happened to the Second Miltian government, he wasn't going to let MOMO be handed over without a fight! Roman watched him a moment and raised her hand in a calming gesture. "Of course not, I'm not letting U-TIC get their hands on the 100-series Prototype Realian. Now…"

"Her name is MOMO." Daemar said in a low, dangerous tone accompanied by an angry frown. A moment of silence passed before chaos stepped closer and put a hand on the taller man's shoulder. "Please Daemar, be at ease. She is our friend, I'm sure she meant no harm. Miss Roman only wants to help." A disarming smile crossed the silver haired youth's face and Daemar grudgingly sat back down again, still frowning but didn't say a word. "Now," Roman started again. "at this moment, Representative Helmer is working with the leaders of the Miltian Parliament to buy us additional time. However, our opponents' skillful manipulation requires us to find concrete proof of your innocence."

"But…how?" Shion asked. Lapis nodded. "That's the question. We need something that would give conclusive evidence of your innocence. I was hoping you could help in that end." Shion frowned thoughtfully with a finger to her chin as she ran possible answers through her mind. "Conclusive…evidence…" She murmured to herself, the others began to think as well with frowns crossing many faces. After several moments Shion opened her mouth. "What about the Woglinde's black box?" But even before she finished Lapis was shaking her head. "We've already recovered that. Unfortunately, sometime after the final gate-out, it was modified to be exactly the same as the video recording, down to the time axis."

A guilty look crossed Jr.s face as he scratched the back of his head. "Not to mention, I shot up the database on that U-TIC battleship…" he said apologetically. Daemar could almost see Mary and Shelley shaking their heads even though they weren't present. He looked over at chaos as he started to speak. "What about the Durandal's database? A record of the battle against the U-TIC should still be there. Can't we use that to prove our innocence?" Lapis nodded thoughtfully for a moment then asked. "Is that a standard database?"

Jr. responded. "Yeah."

A frown crossed her face, which prompted chaos to ask. "Is that a problem?" Lapis nodded and sighed softly as she answered. "Yes…Standard databases are too easily modified. I'm not certain how reliable they would be as evidence." She stopped a moment as another thought occurred to her. "If we had something that even the owner couldn't change, say, a system with a AAA class encryption, then maybe…" Jr. stood straight up as high as he could and cried out. "Wha…? Triple A?! You don't find systems with that kind of protection just lying around! For something like that, you'd need the Federation government's motherframe, or the U.M.N. operating system!" Daemar nodded and added thoughtfully. "Yeah, I agree, I mean where are we going to find a system like that aside from my own?" He snapped his mouth shut quickly as all eyes turned on him, Ziggy spoke first. "You have a AAA class encryption system? Why?"

For a moment embarrassment crossed Daemar's face, then he spoke in a defensive tone. "I…I have my reasons…ok? OK? Besides the information in my head is useless….by the time the Woglinde was attacked, Ziggy and I were on our way to Pleroma. The only information there is what I got from scanning the back of a cargo space." He looked away from the group, not wishing to divulge anymore of his secrets. Thankfully Shion came to the rescue. "We have one!" For a moment everyone was stunned then Allen snapped his fingers as he put the pieces together. "…Oh! Kos-Mos!" Shion nodded and spoke excitedly, using her hands to illustrate. "Yes. Kos-Mos' database has a recording of the battle against the Gnosis onboard the Woglinde. If we enter that as evidence…"

Allen stopped and hung his head as a flaw in the plan came to light. "Yeah, but in order to copy the record, we need the keys from both the Federation government and Headquarters." Shion stared at him for a moment as if the man were dense. "By diving into the Encephalon and experiencing the record ourselves, we can make a copy through the Connection Gear." Daemar groaned softly and hung his head at the thought, though no one seemed to catch it as Allen protested a second time. "B…But…that's impossible without the dive equipment." Shion shook her head and continued. "We don't need it, the Service Module's Simple Dive Unit is more than enough, right?"

"You've got to be kidding! Besides, that's a violation of protocol!" Allen stammered out and received a frown in return as she added heat to her voice. "We don't have any other choice, do we? Oh, I'm so sick and tired of protocol…" She stopped for a moment to collect her thoughts and spoke to herself aloud. "The real question is, how do we get to Kos-Mos?" Daemar pondered this for a few moments as Lapis stood and went to Ziggy, releasing his handcuffs then turned towards Daemar. He shook his head and pulled his arms from behind his back, a few moments before his nanomachines had succeeded in destroying the lock mechanism inside the cuffs and returned to his body. The act of handing Lapis his cuffs produced a startled look from her. "How….how did you do that?" Daemar smirked and waggled a finger. "Sorry, trade secret. Magicians never tell."

The woman shook her head, walked to Shion and handed her a U.M.N. device as she spoke. "That'll open any locked doors you come across. I'll just say that we were careless." She turned toward Ziggy and nodded. "But to make it look legitimate, you'll need to knock me out." Ziggy watched her for any signs of hesitation before asking. "You sure?" Lapis let out a small laugh to ease her own tension. " Otherwise no one would believe it, right?" The older cyborg nodded. "You have a point." Then hit her in the stomach abruptly, easing her down to the ground as she fell unconscious. The guard, who expected this, lowered his hands to his side and let out a breath before letting Ziggy repeat his actions, leaving the group free and clear. Though Jr. surprised Daemar when he complimented the now out cold woman. "Thanks! You're pretty cool."

Daemar just shook his head then looked over at chaos who had motioned to him. "Listen, the others all use weapons for combat and without Kos-Mos, you and I are the only one's who can fight with our bare hands." Daemar snorted. "Lucky us, huh? Well then let's handle the guards outside and find everyone's gear." chaos nodded and the pair of them rushed out the door, Daemar wasted no time letting the guards fight since there were only two. The guard on his right was just beginning to look back when Daemar's right hand grabbed the back of the guard's helmet and rushed forward, slamming his face against the far wall and producing an anguished cry as the guard stumbled back. He only had a moment to recover though as Daemar quickly wheeled around with an impressive roundhouse kick and connected his right heel to the man's face, sending him spinning to the floor. Daemar glanced over his shoulder to chaos and was surprised to find that the silver haired boy had copied his actions right down to his stance and that they had preformed the same move, perfectly synchronized. The only difference was that chaos had used his left hand and foot instead of his right, the boy smiled as he stood from his stance. "We make a pretty good team don't we?" Daemar nodded, still a little surprised since he hadn't planned the move, it just came to him spur of the moment. "Yeah….pretty good."

Everyone's gear was stored in the next room fortunately and from there it was a simple affair getting to the Elsa. They only had to fight a few times and each time they outnumbered the Federation soldiers, making things quite easy. Daemar had grown increasingly uneasy as they made their way to the Elsa though, no one seemed to notice until MOMO touched his arm when they made it to Kos-Mos Service Module. "Daemar, what's the matter?" The little Realian asked with concern in her yellow eyes. "Oh, nothing…I just…you know….hate Encephalon diving…. Well no, maybe hate is to strong a word…..dislike greatly might fit better…" MOMO blinked and touched his arm again to stop him. "You're rambling, why don't you like Encephalon diving?" Daemar looked down at her, he'd crossed his arms though one hand was near his face, if he had fingernails he'd be biting them. "Oh no reason….I mean aside from the massive headache I get afterward and…." Suddenly the world was washed in harsh light, the few images that he could see of the room were warped and distorted, Daemar realized what was happening. _Oh god, we're being sucked into the Encephalon! NO!!! I've got to get out of the room! I've got to…_

Blinding pain flashed through his head, obliterating all of his senses.

End of Chapter 8

Do you wish to save?


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the game of Xenosaga, that is own by Namco and Monolith (pardon the spelling) Xenogears is owned by Square-Enix and I ave no intention of using this story in any way to earn money or take credit for it's creation. My only intent is to use these characters to make a wonderfull story.

Chapter 9: Lost memories and a confession

It was raining, it had been for the past hour. It only seemed to pour down heavier since he fled from the ambush. Sharp pains rain down his left arm where he'd been struck by a laser though there was no feeling in the shoulder anymore and after the third time vomiting from the stench of cooked flesh there was nothing left to come up. Why had it all gone wrong?! His team was dead, they trusted him and now they were all dead! He didn't disserve to be the leader, he didn't even disserve to live for that matter. He stopped and leaned heavily against a tree, his right hand slid down to his thigh and drew the pistol there, he knew it was loaded since he never got the chance to use it before. His thumb pulled back the hammer and placed the barrel to his temple.

"_It would have been easier if things had happened that way, would it not? So, why didn't you pull the trigger?"_ The dark figure asked from behind.

He stopped, his finger already beginning to pull the trigger halfway. A slightly confused look crossed his face as he realized what he was doing and slowly his finger came off the trigger, the weapon lowered to his side. The rain had hidden his tears though he didn't remember shedding them, he pushed from the tree and turned to sit with his back against it; ignoring the wetness that started seeping through the seat of his pants. His gaze went to the grey sky as he answered the question that the dark figure had asked, as well as the same question he'd asked himself in his mind. "Because they wanted me to live……They died to protect me….they had faith in me. I can't…..I can't let them down…." He said softly.

The dark figure nodded. _"Yes….they did, didn't they? They died so you could live, it's a shame really. Back then you didn't see loyalty like that very often. You were quite lucky…however…"_

He looked down the hill suddenly and for a moment panic gripped him at the sight that greeted him. The solders that had killed his unit and burned his arm were coming. And they weren't alone either, aside from the ground troops a tank as well as two APC's were approaching. A cry went up as they spotted him on the hill.

The world shifted, the grey sky went black and everything vanished leaving nothing but an empty darkness with no sense of direction. Daemar stood or rather, floated in a cold sweat. Though the memory had faded away he knew what would come next, he'd fought for all he was worth but to no avail. The solders overpowered him quickly and from there he was subject to the most intense pain he had ever felt in his entire life. _"So, why didn't you pull the trigger?" _Daemar blinked and turned, but in the darkness he couldn't tell if he did or not, there was no sensation of turning not even air passing around him but he knew the voice came from behind. Though he could see nothing he knew the dark figure from his dreams and memory stood there watching him. "They wanted me to live. I couldn't just let their sacrifice go in vain by killing myself." He said and the dark figure snorted. _"So that makes it alright? They got off easy by dying, but you had to live and endure pain that would have driven anyone else mad. In fact, I do believe it did."_ Daemar frowned slightly and tilted his head slightly. "What do you….?"

"_What? Don't you recognize me? Don't you know my voice? I'm hurt, after all we are both a part of the whole."_ With that the dark figure reached up and flung back its hood to reveal a nightmare. There was almost no hair left on the man's head and the few hairs there were there were blackened and brittle. The skin beneath was an angry red, blisters and burns adorned his face. A portion of his cheek was gone, exposing the teeth inside his mouth, a few of them had been broken and left cuts on the gums that bled freely leaving his teeth a shade of red. But the worst was his eyes, the left eye was completely white as though the iris and pupil had been burned away but the right eye wasn't even there. Only an empty socket with red slash marks around the edges showed. Beneath the robes Daemar knew that the man's body would be even worse than his head.

"_Remember me now?"_ He spat, his face twisted in fury. Daemar nodded and looked down and away as he answered. "Yes…..You are….me. After the solders were finished torturing me…." He paused as though he couldn't continue and his injured self pulled his lips into a smile though it made his face look even more hideous. "I also know," Daemar continued. "that you are a manifestation of my anger and rage at what happened." The gruesome smile faded and he reached back, pulling the hood over his twisted face once more as he spoke. _"Yes, though I may not be quite what you were expecting."_ Daemar blinked and looked into the dark hood. "How so?" He asked nervously as his injured self let out a soft, tired sigh. _"I don't want vengeance nor do I want to take over your body and lay waste to the world. At least, not anymore."_ Understandably Daemar was surprised and a bit confused, he was no psychologist but generally a speaking manifestation like this should want to claim his body. His injured self saw the confusion and laughed, a gurgling sound and spoke of lung damage.

"_I am what you made me. When the solders tortured you, you created me to take in most of the pain and anger but you also gave me some of your kindness and understanding as well. I've been here in your sub-conscious mind, reasoning with myself as it were, ever since you were captured and shot into space. I shouldn't have to tell you that four thousand years is a long time to think things over."_ A table suddenly appeared between them with two chairs across from each other, just as suddenly Daemar and his counterpart were sitting at it as if they hadn't bothered with the intervening space. He blinked and nearly jumped, his other self laughed softly and waved a hand. _"My apologies, here anything is possible and as long as I've been here I've learned to simply make whatever it is I want. Now, where were we? Ah, yes."_ He nodded his hood and continued. _"While I have come to terms with what has happened, you have not. It isn't your fault, it's because of the cybernetic components in your brain. Your sub-conscious and conscious minds are permanently separated. Because of this you have not been able to deal with your problem."_

"And just what problem is that?" Daemar said a touch wary but curious at the same time. _"The dreams that you have been having of the past have been your doing, not mine though I have tried to break through a few times. That's why I was able to appear and speak to you if in a somewhat cryptic manner."_ Daemar shook his head and rubbed his eyes in disbelief. "So, what you're saying is that I'm the one causing my own problems and that you, a manifestation of the pain and anger I felt are my psychiatrist?"

Even covered by the hood, Daemar knew his other self was smiling. _"Ironic isn't it?"_ He continued on in a more serious manner_. "But, now that you know I am here and what I'm trying to do for you, I should let you go."_ Daemar blinked. "Go? But why?" _"This is an Encephalon, with it your conscious and sub-conscious minds can meet, which explains the headaches by the way; but you came here to help your friends."_ He paused a moment and looked up. _"Besides, there is another here who wants to see you. Don't worry, we'll meet again." _Before Daemar could protest his other self had vanished as well was the table and chairs, the world as he knew it was bathed in white light.

Slowly the blinding pain faded from his eyes until he could see again and Daemar found himself standing on a sunny hillside. The land and forest around him was lush and green as far as the eye could see save the city far in the distance. It was mid-afternoon and the sky was yellowish gold hue, it was his favorite time of day back on Earth. With a gentle, warm breeze blowing towards him Daemar felt compelled to take a nap if only for a little while. He started when he heard a feminine voice speak from behind him.

"A lovely day, isn't it?"

Daemar turned quickly to face the source and blinked in surprise, for standing not six feet away under a tree was Kos-Mos. She was smiling warmly at him as her long azure hair fluttered in the breeze. Then he noticed two things, the first was that her eyes were blue rather than red which didn't surprise him much. The second was that she wasn't wearing her normal clothing but rather a light one-piece dress made of white cloth. A matching pair of sandals were dangled in her hands, only her head gear remained the same. "Are you alright, Daemar?" She asked with a hint of concern crossing her face. He blinked a couple more times before nodding dumbly, he hadn't yet recovered his voice.

"Will you join me?" She asked, motioning to the tree with her free hand and again Daemar could only nod. He followed her and sat down a bit stiffly whereas she sat down as gracefully as a ballet dancer, why was he nervous all of a sudden? Was it because he hadn't been this close to Kos-Mos since he'd kissed her in her maintenance pod nearly a week gone? Or perhaps it was because, sitting here as she was; she appeared more alive and human than she did before? She put a hand on his shoulder, which caused him to jump and her to laugh. "Relax, I'm not going to bite you Daemar." She said with a smile and Daemar couldn't help but turn red. Her laugh was like a masterpiece carefully composed over an entire lifetime and her smile was like that of an angel. It was no wonder Daemar desired her, any man would have to be a fool or dead to not be attracted to her. _But then…this is different, isn't it? You know her a little more than the average Joe don't you? Any other person would see a weapon, hardware and equipment. Not a person. _That was true, for all the power she had Daemar saw her as a person and not a weapon.

All of this flashed through his mind as Kos-Mos opened her mouth to speak after calming him down. "So, why here?" She asked and Daemar blinked in confusion. "Why here? What do you mean?" Kos-Mos waved her hand toward the forest around them then looked back to him. "Your mind is different from the others…your memories are different, though they are connected they are…fragmented. And so, rather than staying with the others, you took a different path in the Encephalon and created this place. Why?" Daemar watched her as she spoke then leaned back his head against the tree as he spoke. "I dunno….if it's in my memory then it must mean I've been here before. I guess it's because this place brings me peace, a sense of calm, something I've had little of lately." He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not really a big fan of Encephalon dives…..old memories that I'd rather not remember crop up….I end up separated from anyone else I dive with or else I simply fall unconscious until the dive ends. And then there's the pounding headaches I get after…." He chuckled softly and shook his head. "And now I just found out that I have a twisted version of myself that's been running around my sub-conscious mind for the last four thousand years and he wants to help me get over my past by playing psychiatrist."

Daemar's face fell into a tired cast as he put a hand to his head and shook it again. "Freud would have a field day with me….that or he wouldn't touch my problems with a twenty foot pole." He laughed ruefully before continuing. "Oh yeah, I'm a winner alright…a catch no woman in her right mind would want and here I am having feelings for…." He stopped suddenly and looked over at Kos-Mos who'd been listening attentively then raised her eyebrows when he stopped. "Feelings? For who?" She asked, a tiny smile quirking her lips as though she knew the answer already. Daemar turned red again. "I….well…… Hey now, let's not get off track here. You wanted to know why we're here so I'll answer." He said quickly and shifted back to the original topic and though Kos-Mos clearly wanted to continue about who he liked, she let it go though the look in her eyes said they would come back to it. "Well…." He continued. "…I think it has something to do with my conscious and sub-conscious minds. Ever since I was made into a cyborg the two have been separate, I haven't been able to dream properly in a long time because of it. But in the Encephalon they connect and try to pick up solving my problems from where they left off." Daemar paused for a breath and Kos-Mos continued listening raptly. "Now that I think about it, I've been here before. This is Earth and I've been on this hill but only once."

Images of soldiers beating and torturing him in the rain flashed through his mind for a moment then passed. "I guess my sub-conscious mind is trying to help me overcome an old pain and brought me here. Though, it doesn't explain why you're here and in a sun dress of all things." He finished with a gesture towards her clothing.

"All of our memories are connected, they are shared by all things." She lifted her arms and spread them to take in the scene around them. "In the Encephalon they connect further and are shared on a more material level." She finished as if that explained it all then smiled at him and touched his hand. "You however are different, somehow you created a shielded space inside the Encephalon that was hidden from Shion and the others, but not from me." She then touched the hem of her dress and looked down at it as if seeing it for the first time. "This place, is enclosed in the happy memories of your past and it was a simple matter to slip inside since I am in one of your memories. As for the dress, I saw a girl in your past that wore one and it made you happy so I chose it." She pulled her legs up, wrapped her arms around then and laid her cheek on her knees to look at him. "So tell me, who is it you have feelings for, hmmm?" A small mischievous grin painted her lips.

Daemar blinked and looked away as his face turned red once more, he was silent for a time while he tried to find an answer. Kos-Mos continued to grin as if she knew a secret or perhaps the answer to her question. "I….." He started then paused and leaned his head back against the tree with his eyes closed then spoke softly. "I think you already know the answer to that one Kos-Mos…… But, since you want me to spell it out, it's you." He opened his eyes and looked at her, in turn she'd raised her head and locked eyes with him, waiting for him to finish. "I know it seems strange….but…I have feelings for you Kos-Mos. I can't explain why…. We hardly know each other, we've only met a week ago and aside from battle you and I have spent almost no time together." He frowned and looked out toward the city far away before continuing. "You and I are different….I'm a cyborg, and you are a weapon built to fight the Gnosis. But despite that, I can't help but care about you. I want to stand by your side and make you happy." He laughed softly. "I suppose you must think I'm defective in the head for saying something like that…."

Kos-Mos had listened quietly, her grin fading as he confessed his feelings for her, her face was worried at first then she broke into a beaming smile. "I don't think that at all Daemar, though we have spent little time together I know that you are a kind person. I'm glad you told me how you felt." She leaned forward and kissed his cheek gently and used that as an excuse to scoot closer to him. "I enjoy your company, and though I know I don't show it but I really am happy when you're around. But…." Her face fell slightly and her eyes looked toward the ground, Daemar tilted his head to one side as he spoke. "What is it?" He asked. Kos-Mos looked back up at him and Daemar blinked, her eyes were watery. But why would she be sad? Her eyes closed and she spoke softly with her head down. "There's a feeling…..in my heart, a feeling for someone else. I can't explain it……it's nothing like the feeling I get around you. It's completely different, yet it's just as strong."

Daemar frowned slightly then considered for a moment. "When do you get this feeling?" Kos-Mos drew up her knees again and hugged them to her chest. "When I'm with Shion……I don't know why, but I get this powerful feeling whenever I'm near her….it's so strong, especially in battle." Daemar blinked in surprise. "In battle? Hmmm…… It sounds like….." He paused a moment and Kos-Mos looked at him expectantly. "It sounds like, you want to protect her. It's only natural, since she was the one who created you and all." Daemar said with a smile, though Kos-Mos didn't seem relieved. After a moment though she nodded and let a small smile pull at the corners of her mouth. "I think you're right, that must be it." For a moment, Daemar thought he heard a waver in her voice; was she sure? Or was she putting on a brave front for him? He drove the thought from his head with a firm shake before addressing his next concern. "So, where does that leave us? You like me and I like you, but you only act like this when your eyes turn blue….. What would the others think if I said I cared about you?"

"Don't worry about it." Kos-Mos said as her right hand slipped into his left, her smile growing as she resisted the urge to laugh at his sudden confusion. "Don't worry about it?" He asked somewhat incredulously and she repeated with a laugh. "Don't worry about it. As the saying goes, "Things have a way of working themselves out, so don't worry." Daemar raised a skeptical eyebrow. "And where did you pick up a saying like that?" He asked, to which she responded. "Hmmm… I'm not sure, I believe it's a part of a data file in my core memory to help facilitate communications and interactions with people." Now both of his eyebrows shot up. "Careful, you're starting to sound like your old self." A giggle bubbled from her lips as she leaned closer and laid her head on his shoulder. "I know….sorry, I guess it's sort of a habit."

"I hardly think being programmed is a habit." He muttered. Another giggle as she snuggled a little closer to him, Daemar slipped his left arm around her and took her left hand with his right and rested them on his leg. By silent agreement the pair watched the sun as it slowly began to set and enjoyed one another's company. Daemar wasn't sure how long they sat together, it felt like hours maybe even days but it didn't matter because this was the most relaxed he'd been in years. Finally he broke the silence. "Hey!" He asked in a surprised tone of voice. "I just thought about it, how DO you make your eyes turn blue? And why DOES you're personality change so much when that happens?" Kos-Mos looked up at him a moment, then smiled slyly as if she knew something he didn't and opened her mouth. He never heard her answer though, he saw her mouth move but no sound came out. She didn't seem surprised by this, though Daemar was and tried to speak but his voice suddenly stopped working. His vision began to dim around the edges until everything faded away.

Daemar felt someone tug at his coat sleeve repeatedly until he was sure it was going to tear off, he shook his head and blinked as he came back to awareness. He was standing in Kos-Mos maintenance bay with the others, it seemed that the Encephalon dive was over and everyone was in various stages of recovery. MOMO stood to his left with her hands on his sleeve, it was plain to see that she was worried from the amount of tugging she'd done. Both chaos and Ziggy were watching him with concern until he spoke. "What happened?" It was MOMO who answered. "When the dive ended, you were just standing there with your eyes open like you were in a trance! I called your name but you didn't respond." He blinked again and patted MOMO on the head gently. "I'm alright now…thank you MOMO." He really did feel fine, the headache that usually went with Encephalon dives was not present, and he felt as though an invisible weight had been lifted from his shoulders. His attention was drawn to Kos-Mos as she stepped from her pod and responded to Shion's greeting. Then it was drawn to chaos and Ziggy as they stepped forward and spoke softly to him. "Where were you?" Neither seemed surprised that they spoke almost as one though MOMO was curious what was going on. Daemar turned his head slightly. "What do you mean 'where was I?' "

"When we dove into the Encephalon we all got separated, you weren't with our group." Ziggy started. "And you weren't with Shion and myself either, so where were you Daemar?" chaos finished. In response the young cyborg just smiled and said. "I went to a happy place."

End of Chapter 9

Do you wish to save?


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the game of Xenosaga, that is own by Namco and Monolith (pardon the spelling) Xenogears is owned by Square-Enix and I ave no intention of using this story in any way to earn money or take credit for it's creation. My only intent is to use these characters to make a wonderfull story.

Chapter 10: The Gnosis attack and MOMO goes bye-bye

A few hours had passed since the Encephalon dive; Shion had already given the memory data bank over to Captain Roman and cleared everyone's names. All that could be done at this point was to wait for the Federation to officially clear them and let them continue on to Second Miltia. Daemar had quietly left the Durandal after asking Ziggy to keep an eye on MOMO; the older cyborg nodded and let him go without asking any questions. It was clear from the expression on Daemar's face that he had much on his mind despite having said that he had been in a happy place during the dive. He'd taken to wandering the streets of the colony with his sleeves pulled down and his metallic hands tucked into the pockets of his jacket. Most people could tell he was cyborg by the way he moved, or the sound his feet made when they hit the pavement, that much he could not control. Normally his feet looked like metallic boots and sounded the same though he could make them appear as normal shoes they way he could make his arms and hands appear as real flesh and blood but he could do nothing for the sound. Every step he took made a dull thunk, marking it a signature and making stealth a hard thing for him. He grimaced slightly as he passed a young couple gave him an unusual look, they had seen a normal looking young man and heard a cyborg. _I try to escape, but I can't. I can't escape what I am…._ He thought and shook his head to try and clear away the thought, for now he wanted to concentrate on Kos-Mos and only Kos-Mos.

"Funny, that…" He said to himself softly. "I like her…I care about her, maybe even love her and yet I can't seem to say those words to her… Is it even her that I love?" He finished softly and frowned, knowing that he spoke of Kos-Mos personality. At times, her eyes were red and she was her normal, cold, and logical self but when her eyes turned blue, she became warm, caring though her power increased to a level that was beyond frightening. "And yet I cannot help but be drawn to her…" He said, ignoring the looks that an older man gave him, one that silently asked if this strange young man wasn't a little loopy in the head. "Could be worse…at least no one thinks I'm a victim of the Life Recycling Act." Daemar came to a halt outside of a hotel called "Our Treasure" and looked up at the dome, into the stars beyond. "Alright then, I'll go tell her." He gave a decisive nod, turned and set off at a jog back to the shuttles.

His progress was halted by the sound of a scream from inside the hotel.

Daemar looked back for a moment, unsure as to what had happened, many of the people around him had stopped as well and started to mill about and mutter. Daemar started toward the hotel entrance when a second scream from inside issued, prompting him to move faster, a sudden shout from the crowd stopped him for a moment. Someone had looked up and pointed to the dome where bright flashes marked the destruction of a number of the Federation ships still around the Foundation. Daemar spared only a brief glance as he pushed past people and opened the door to the hotel. Inside the place was a wreck, tables were overturned and chairs scattered, the sound of running from the upper floors sounded through the ceiling and the clerk was nowhere to be seen. Daemar started for the stairs but froze as a large, purple, humanoid shaped apparition stepped through the far wall like a ghost. "Uh-oh….G…"

"GNOSIS!!" Came the scream from outside.

Daemar looked back over his shoulder as people in the street began to scatter from the Gnosis that appeared among them. The pounding of feet from upstairs increased and heavy thuds issued as if someone were throwing things around. Occasionally a loud bang announced that a large piece of furniture had been hurled into a wall. Daemar quickly brought his attention back to the Troll type gnosis that was now thundering toward him, with no time to dodge, Daemar crossed his arms in front of his face and braced himself. The collision sent him backwards into a table, his weight crushing the wood and sending splinters everywhere, the troll roared as Daemar started to stand up again. "Damn…" He muttered to himself. "Kos-Mos hasn't used the Hilbert Effect…. I can't touch them, but they can hit me." Suddenly the clerk came bounding down the stairs with a little girl in his arms then halted when he spied the troll right in front of him. "Oh god…" He whispered then gave a scream as the remains of a table hurled through the troll, forcing its attention back to the cyborg that had thrown it. "Run!!" Daemar shouted, picking up a chair and charging at the large purple monster.

He never got the chance to swing, the troll backhanded him almost casually, catching him in the midsection and sending him flying into the doors and crashing through them to the street. Dazed, Daemar tried to pick himself up and was mildly surprised when a man helped him to his feet. "Are you alright son?" The man asked and threw his arms up over his eyes as bluish white light washed over them. Daemar looked towards the Durandal and smiled slightly. "About time…" He said to himself as the Hilbert Effect continued to radiate outward from the Durandal Bridge. He rushed back into the hotel and found the troll standing before a large vault, unable to get in. A second had joined the first and turned toward him as he entered and charged. Again, the cyborg held his ground with his arms in a ready position and his hands open. Daemar almost laughed when the part of the troll that might be called a face registered surprised by the fact that this small human had just caught his hands and was pushing back! Daemar yelled and pushed back harder than before and forced the troll back into a support pillar, knocking over a lamp and starting a small fire. The surprised look registered again as Daemar leapt from where he stood landed a powerful blow to the troll's head, causing it to fall to the side, dazed.

A brief flash of light engulfed Daemar as he switched to the P.C.S., the panel on his right arm opened and the long square tipped blade housed within popped up and slid out. Before the troll could get to it's feet, Daemar swept the blade across what he thought was it's neck and sent the head flying across the room. It vanished long before it touched the floor, as did the body. He looked up, preparing to attack the second troll still standing in front of the vault when a scream issued from outside. Behind the armored mask, he grimaced. The clerk was dead and so was his little girl, there was no point in staying when the living still needed help. He rushed outside to a scene of chaos, Gnosis where everywhere and scattered about were bodies of the dead and piles of white powder from those the Gnosis had picked up and "whitened". A few people were trying to fight back but none had weapons and the few who possessed powers were so weak that they couldn't do much more than fend off Gnosis long enough for them to run. Daemar had faced the Gnosis before, but always with Shion and the others, this was the first time he'd seen innocent people fall under attack. He vaulted over the railing to the street below, his hands tightening into fists as he took measured steps toward the fray before him. The thruster ports on his back opened and fired, turning him into a high speed ram aimed a Bugbear that had it's massive fists raised over it's head, poised to crush the man who'd helped him up a moment before. The impact was stunning, the Gnosis never saw the blue cyborg until his armored shoulder came crashing into it's midsection, leaving a visible dent as it went flying into a parked truck. A moment later the vehicle exploded and the pain filled roar confirmed the monster's demise. Daemar landed carefully and looked at the man who in turn looked back at the blue armor covered man that had just saved his life. He extended a metallic hand to help the man up. "You'd better hide somewhere, until things cool down." He said and the man nodded in stunned silence before stumbling off in the direction of the evacuation shuttles.

Daemar turned back toward Sector 27 and frowned slightly, a number of Kobolds were milling about swinging their blades in anticipation. In there midst stood a single Basilisk, dancing on it's six legs as it was wont to do, it froze as Daemar fixed his yellow gaze on the group then bristled and issued a high pitched screech. To a one the Kobolds charge with blades held above their heads, eyes fixed on the cyborg before them. Daemar crouched slightly and rushed forward, seeking to break their charge, this wasn't a difficult task to accomplish as the kobolds were about half his size but what they lacked in size they made up for in sheer numbers. His arms were crossed in front of him, he held his upper body low and when he connected with the first kobold he raised up and swept his arms apart. The result: five kobolds went flying into the air, screeching in anger as they rained down to the ground, the other kobolds halted and hissed. Daemar prepared the charge again when the kobolds suddenly scattered to either side, he blinked behind his armored mask and stood upright. "What….?" The Basilisk hissed loudly, the semi-transparent bulb on it's back end glowed fiery red as the creature released a blast of fire that streaked for him, the young cyborg didn't have time to react and took the blast full in the chest. For the second time in less than ten minutes, Daemar flew backward and came to a stop with a loud crash when he collided with another truck. He pulled himself from the wreck and stood slowly, the kobolds were shaking as they moved closer to the basilisk; it took him a moment to realize that they were laughing at him. _I didn't think gnosis COULD laugh…..no matter…_

Daemar drew up to his fully height, his right thigh opened to reveal the blaster contained within. "So, you think that's funny..?" His hand went down and pulled the weapon free, his thumb flicking a tiny switch that set the blaster to charge with a high pitched whine. The kobolds stopped shaking and stared at him, as did the basilisk when he aimed the screaming blaster at them. "Laugh at this then." He said and pulled the trigger. The shot that was fired wasn't the normal high speed yellow round but a fist sized bolt that raced across the intervening space and slammed into the transparent bulb of the basilisk. The two energies mingled for a moment then, like matter and anti-matter, the two tried to cancel each other out in a large explosion that ripped the basilisk apart as well as the kobolds. Daemar lowered the blaster, flicking the switch back to its original setting before it could charge again. With the path clear, he took off at a jog into Sector 27.

The fighting there had been tough, especially when three trolls had managed to box him in a corner but he continued to fight on until a familiar voice shouted out to him. "I see you got the party started without us!" Daemar, having just dispatched another basilisk, turned quickly to find Shion and the others facing him, Jr. was grinning at him. "Did you leave any for us at all?" The red haired boy asked, twirling his guns skillfully. Daemar lowered the blaster and put it back in it's holster and faced the group, the armor around his head opened and retracted into the main body so he could show his face without removing all the armor. A small grin painted his lips as he replied. "Sorry about that….I didn't intend to crash the party, the party crashed me, so to speak. But yes, there are plenty left to fight."

With the party back at full strength, they proceeded to exterminate all of the Gnosis in sectors 26 and 27 and saving a number of people who had hidden instead of evacuating. Daemar breathed a great sigh of relief when he found that the daughter of the hotel clerk had been hidden in the vault behind the counter, because Kos-Mos used the Hilbert Effect, the troll gnosis was unable to get to the little girl. Eventually they cleared out the hoard, faced the last of the gnosis, a large one about the size of an A.W.G.S., and aptly called the Gigas. With the last of the gnosis inside the colony destroyed, the group made their way to the launch pad where the citizens were lined up to evacuate to the Durandal. Daemar stopped when MOMO stopped to help tend to a wounded man, Ziggy stopped as well but Daemar halted the older cyborg with a hand on his shoulder. "You head back with the others, I keep leaving you to watch MOMO, it's my turn now." Ziggy looked as though he wanted to argue but nodded and followed chaos into the shuttle. Daemar kneeled down next to a woman who was groaning softly from a leg injury and tried to help her while Shion called to MOMO.

"MOMO! Hurry and get in!" She called and, without looking up, MOMO responded. "I'm okay! I've got to help treat these injured people! This person is bleeding heavily…" Shion looked unsure but Daemar stood and called to her. "It's alright Shion, I'll stay with her." The woman nodded. "All right! We'll come back for you soon!" She pulled her head in; the shuttle hatch closed and took off. Daemar knelt down again, bound the woman's injured leg with cloth, and smiled. "There, that should stop the bleeding until she comes over with nanospray." He gestured back toward MOMO without looking and started to stand when the woman looked at him in a confused manner. "Until who comes?" Daemar looked back at her and smiled politely, it was possible that she'd taken a blow to the head so he half turned to indicate MOMO. "My friend over there, the cute Realian girl with pink hair and…." He cut off when he didn't see her, he turned all the way around but still saw no sign of her. "Excuse me ma'am." He said and headed back toward Sector 26. "MOMO? MOMO, where are you?!"

End of Chapter 10

Do you wish to save?


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the game of Xenosaga, that is own by Namco and Monolith (pardon the spelling) Xenogears is owned by Square-Enix and I ave no intention of using this story in any way to earn money or take credit for it's creation. My only intent is to use these characters to make a wonderfull story.

(Update time! Ok, as some of you may, or may not have noticed. I've updated the story, it's been...well, goodness, I don't know how long it's been since I uploaded a new chapter. Not only have I uploaded this brand spankin' new chapter, I've gone back and done some rewritting on the previous chapters. (A semester of English Composistion made me do it) So, some of my orginal comments will be lost, not a big deal really. But I thought I'd let you know. And, if worst comes to worst, I'll just re-upload the whole story so bear with me if things seem messed up. Ok? Ok! On with the show!)

Chapter 11: Daemar vs. Albedo, Round 1

Metallic footsteps rang on the pavement as Daemar ran through the empty streets of Sector 26, calling out through cupped hands. "MOMO? MOMO!!! Where are you?!" _I looked away for five seconds…I looked away for five BLOODY seconds!!_ Worry etched in his face as he continued to search for his missing ward, his sensors spread out over the area but finding little. _I never added her to my sensor logs… damnit! How could I have done something so stupid? _He continued on, frantic eyes searching as he ran, turning to head back towards the dock. A short scream echoed through the buildings to his ears and stopped the young cyborg dead in his tracks. "MOMO…" He whispered and tore off in the direction the scream had come from.

17 seconds later he skidded to a halt at the entrance to an alleyway he'd passed when the first few moments of panic had driven him to run rather than look. His eyes took in the scene before him, MOMO lay, unconscious, in the arms of a tall man that Daemar had never seen before. The man had been walking away but stopped upon hearing Daemar's arrival at the entrance of the alley and looked back. He was tan of skin and had purple, almost amethyst really, colored eyes and short white hair. His clothing was mostly white and on his back was an odd looking short cape, also white, and gave the impression of clipped bird wings. But the strange thing was, the man looks almost familiar…as if he'd seen him before. Daemar pushed the thought aside and took a step to his left, planting himself in the middle of the alleyway, then spoke. "If you put that girl down now and step away, I won't hurt you. But if you've harmed her in any way, I swear, I'll break every bone in your body." He snarled.

The white haired man smirked and looked down at MOMO's slack face. "Oh, look ma belle pêche, your Tin Man has come to the rescue!" The man let out a laugh and Daemar frowned angrily. _Pêche? What kind of man is he?_ "Put her down NOW!" He repeated, his hands curling into fists and his legs bracing for a charge. The man merely laughed again. "So you think you can best me, hmm? "Break every bone in my body?" He laughed again as if the cyborg's statement were merely an amusing anecdote. "Alright then, let's see if you can!" With that, he gently set MOMO down, propping her upright against the wall and faced Daemar fully, a grin spread across his face as he flexed his hands like claws. "Come, make me feel the pain!"

For a moment Daemar's frowned wavered. That man seemed unworried, almost happy at the prospect of getting trashed by a cyborg! _Is he crazy or something?_ He shook his head. _No, focus! Knock him out then get MOMO out of here! _The young cyborg steeled his resolve and charged forward, not wanting to waste any time on gauging his opponent's abilities, he decided to end the fight quickly. With a brief roar, Daemar landed an impressive right hook across the other man's face, causing him to stagger back, followed by a left punch to the gut to double him over. He finished with an uppercut to the white haired man's face, snapping him upright and backwards to land flat on his back. Satisfied, Daemar turned to collect MOMO and froze when a very strange giggle issued from his decked opponent. "What…?"

Daemar's eyes widened as the man got to his feet, his face showing no sign of injury despite having been hit with steel fists! "Oh, come now Tin Man… is that really the best you can do? I didn't even feel that!" The white haired man grinned madly and motioned for Daemar to attack again. _Fine…you want rough? You got it!_ He thought as he leapt to the attack again, landing another right hook as he had done before but with enough force to turn the man's head sharply. But he paused slightly when his opponent's head turned back just as quickly, still grinning. _What? No way! That should have knocked out teeth at least! Is he not human?_ Surprise crossed his face when his opponent dropped his arms and presented his face with a grin, tapping his check once. The cyborg gave a shout and lashed out again, this time hitting with enough force to send the man flying a good five feet. But Daemar didn't stop there, as the man landed he leapt on top of him, keeping him pinned as he continued the assault. Metallic fists rained down on the white haired man's face and chest, each blow accompanied by a sickening *****THUD* but the man continued to laugh as if this were all a game.

_Shut up, shut up SHUT UP!!!!_ Daemar thought fiercely as he started hitting with enough force to shatter brick, but still the man laughed. He laced his metal fists together and raised them up over his head for a hammer blow, but as his fists came down, something happened that he didn't expect. The white haired man, who's face was only now beginning to bruise looked up at him with a smile that was more than a little unnerving and casually caught Daemar's arms, stopping the blow dead and whispered. "As much fun as this his been, Tin Man, I'm afraid ma belle pêche and I have somewhere to be, you understand, yes?" Then, just as casually, the man reached up with his legs and locked his ankles around Daemar's neck from behind. Daemar was quite surprised, he'd heard and felt the man's legs pop out of their hip sockets! He didn't have time for much else as the white haired man pulled back with his legs with more strength than his thin frame suggested, hurling Daemar head over heels through the air as if he'd been flung by a catapult. He landed with a loud *Wumph!* on his stomach groaned.

Slowly Daemar tried to get to his feet and was surprised to find that his opponent was already up and crossing the intervening space between them. _WHAT?! His legs were both dislocated! I FELT IT!! _His thought cut off as the man kicked him in the chest with enough force to push him to his feet and knock the breath out of him. A karate chop to the throat and a blow to the stomach double Daemar over as he struggled to take in a breath. Then he felt himself flying through the air again, somehow the man had lifted and thrown him back into the alley!

By the time the stars were clearing from his eyes, Daemar could see the man standing at the entrance of the alley, laughing for all the world like he'd heard the funniest joke ever. His eyes shown with a feverish light as he continued to cackle madly. _God…he's crazy…and strong! The only other person that strong is Kos-Mos! _Slowly Daemar climbed to a crouch with a hand on his mid-section, coughing for a moment before he could speak. "Who……who the hell are you?" He managed to gasp. The man stopped laughing and looked at him then grinned broadly. "Oh my, how rude of me! Here, I know you are and now I'm trying to kill you without even introducing myself! That won't do at all." The man pulled up to his full height and bowed, sweeping one hand before him. "I am Albedo Piasora, Son of Dr. Dmitri Yuriev, brother to Rubedo, the new caretaker of ma belle pêche, and your executioner!" He finished with a happy laugh and stood upright as Daemar's fist connected with his face. While Albedo had been introducing himself, Daemar made a low leap across the ground and attacked then pulled back his fist after the first blow snapped Albedo's head back and attacked again.

Albedo's left hand snapped up and caught Daemar's wrist and stopped it as he had the hammer blow. Albedo looked at Daemar with a rueful grin, blood just starting to run down from his nose. "Naughty, naughty!" His right hand came up and grasped the young cyborg's unprotected throat roughly and lifted him up. "Don't you know…" Albedo let go of Daemar's right hand and pulled back his hand, ether began to gather around the man. "It's rude to punch someone who isn't…." Daemar gasped for breath as Albedo's left hand glowed with red ether and thrust forward, connecting with his chest, palm open as Albedo finished his sentence. _"LOOKING!!!" _Pain lanced through Daemar as he hit the ground and felt weight land on him, followed closely by blows and slashes raining down on his face and chest while Albedo laughed maniacally.

Daemar tried to protect himself from the onslaught, but each time he raised his arms, Albedo knocked them back down and renewed his assault. _Got to….get him off me…! _Bright blue light suddenly banished the dark of the alley, blinding Albedo for a moment as Daemar switched on his P.C.S. A moment passed and Daemar pushed hard against Albedo's chest, sending the man flying back five feet. It didn't knock the man down, but gave Daemar enough time to climb to his feet. Albedo, who'd recovered his balance, grinned fiercely. "Ahh, so now the Tin Man is serious? It's about time, I was starting to get bored!" And again he laughed, but Daemar didn't wait this time.

His right forearm opened and the long, squared tipped blade sprang out, extending to its full length. Daemar rushed forward and with a quick backhand slash, neatly sliced Albedo's right arm from his body at the shoulder. For a moment shock registered on Albedo's face as his arm hit the ground but again Daemar didn't wait, he pressed forward and plunged the blade into Albedo's chest, bringing surprise to the white hair man's face. Daemar pulled his face close and whispered. "I didn't want to kill you, you know. You left me no choice." Before the other man could speak, Daemar stepped back, pulling the blade roughly from Albedo's chest, then spun and backhand slashed again, severing Albedo's head from his neck.

Daemar's breaths came in long and heavy as he let the blade retract into his arm. Albedo's corpse fell to it's knees and his head had already landed in a corner, surprise still on his face. The only odd thing was the lack of blood, but Daemar paid it no mind, he only had eyes for MOMO. _I've got to get her out of here…let the others know what happened… I just hope this guy's death gets chalked up to the Gnosis and not-_ The world lurched forward for a moment as something red sprayed across the wall in front of him, the HUD in his eyes flared red, indicating damage. He looked down to find an impossible sight, Albedo's right hand and part of the arm were protruding through the right side of his chest, the white material covered in blood and bits of blue metal. _That's impossible…how…?_

A voice suddenly whispered in his ear from behind. It was Albedo! "I wanted to kill you, you know. You stood between me an ma belle pêche." Daemar didn't react when Albedo pulled his arm free and spun him around. The lack of pain from the last attack and surprise at the fact that Albedo and force his arm through the armor on his back, through his chest and out through the armor on his front with little trouble. _I'm going into shock…_he thought blankly as Albedo gleefully took hold of his right arm and, with a karate-like chop, severed it from his shoulder. Feebly he tried to defend himself as Albedo started swinging his new weapon like a club but the shock and loss of blood slowed his reaction as blow after blow connected, leaving dents and cracks in his armor. His faceplate cracked and threatened to shatter under the assault until finally, Daemar slipped in the blood that was pooling below him and fell to the ground heavily.

Albedo stood over him, grinning victoriously with his arm held in both hands over his head, blade pointed down. "I'll be sure to tell ma belle pêche how you died, I'm sure she'll be proud of how well you fought." He said, and, with an insane giggle, brought the arm down, the blade sliding neatly through the damaged chest armor. Daemar cried out, or at least tried to, his right lung was destroyed from the first major blow and the only reason he wasn't dead was because Albedo's foot had slipped in Daemar's blood. The blade hit the left side of his chest, doing damage to his left lung instead of his heart. Albedo looked slightly disappointed, but grinned, he knew as well as Daemar that he stood little chance of survival. He quickly gathered up MOMO and departed down the alley, laughing all the while.

Daemar breathed in, shallow, gurgling breaths as his left lung started to fill with what was left of his blood. _I'm going to die…I'm really going to die…I'm sorry MOMO…I should have protected you better. And Ziggy…I let you down…_ His vision started to turn fuzzy, his breaths coming in more and more shallow. _Kos-Mos…I never…I never got to tell you… How I feel… Kos-Mos…I…I…love…_

Darkness.

End of Chapter 11

Do you wish to save?


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the game of Xenosaga, that is own by Namco and Monolith (pardon the spelling) Xenogears is owned by Square-Enix and I ave no intention of using this story in any way to earn money or take credit for it's creation. My only intent is to use these characters to make a wonderful story.

(Ok, WOW. It's been WELL over a year since I updated this story...I mean...geez...I can't believe I let it go this long! But, that's what I get for becoming and LP'er...and changing my school major. *sigh* But! I really want to finish this story and I shall! I know where I want to take it in Episode III, the problem is I need to finish up here first, wouldn't you agree? Anyways, I've tried to adjust my writing style a bit so it should be easier to tell who's speaking to who. But I'm a stubborn cuss, so I ain't changing the previous chapters...again... *sweatdrop* ANYWAYS! Read, enjoy and I'll have the next chapter up real soon!)

Chapter 12: Second chances

"Am I dead?" Daemar asked, feeling, rather than hearing his voice echo in the darkness.

"_No, not quite yet."_

Daemar felt himself turn to face his robed and hooded self; he was back in that strange dream-like place that always came from Encephalon diving. But why had it appeared now? His inner self nodded inside his hood and spoke.

"_This place isn't attached to an Encephalon, it's more of a doorway in your mind, if you will. It's where you resided during your original voyage to Militia."_

Daemar shook his head slightly and raised his right hand to touch his brow, but blinked when he realized that nothing was there.

"What the-?"

_This place is a part of you mind, you project yourself here as you are in the waking world. So, right now you have a hole in your chest and your am is gone."_ His other self said in a matter-of-factly tone and gestured to a table with chairs that had just appeared. Daemar moved to sit, feeling slightly uncomfortable at the fact that he was so grievously injured, but reminded himself that his inner self wasn't whole _either_. He reached his left hand over to touch the damaged shoulder socket.

"So, I'm not dead…but I will be?"

His other self shrugged. _"All things die, although, I think that with enough regular maintenance, you'll live for as long as you want."_ He raised a gloved hand to forestall Daemar's words. _Right now, your body is onboard the Dammurung undergoing major repair."_

The young cyborg frowned. "How can you know that? You're locked inside my head…how can you know what's going on in the waking world when I don't?" He asked.

"_Like I said before, it is a doorway that can lead to an Encephalon. And since Encephalons are connected to the U.M.N., I can tap into it. In your case I was able to gain access to a number of security systems and cameras. Ziggy and the others came back when you and MOMO didn't turn up on the Durandal, when they found you, they brought you back but the medics seemed convinced that you were a goner."_

Daemar put up a hand to halt his other self and took a moment to try and process everything. "You…can connect to the U.M.N.?" He asked in an incredulous tone but the hooded figure shook his head.

"_Only when you're asleep or unconscious, like now. If I tried to access the U.M.N. while you were awake and active, it would cause mental stress in the form of nasty headaches that wouldn't go away. That and you would see what I was doing while you were active, creating a visual data overlap."_

Daemar shook his head slightly and sighed. "I suppose that makes sense…."

His other self nodded and continued. _"That was one of the things I had been meaning to speak with you about when next we met. But back to the matter at hand, Kos-Mos didn't believe the medics and used her own nanomachines to help keep you alive. And once Ziggy mentioned that Vector had rebuilt you, Shion made a call and had you taken to the Dammurung."_

Daemar nodded, the nanomachines that Kos-Mos used were a more advanced version of the basic nanos that he used so it made sense that she'd use them on him. But what surprised him was the fact that she had used them at all. Kos-Mos was normally a logical being and since they had similar nanos, logic dictated that hers could help him. But his other self had said that she didn't "believe" the medics and took matters into her own hands. That sounded more like something a person with emotion might do.

"So, what about MOMO?" He asked, knowing that his survival was a guarantee now. If Vector's R&D Division could fix him after floating through space for 4,000 years, then this was a piece of cake.

"_Last I checked, she was being held by Albedo on board a station called the Song of Nephilim, Shion and the others have gone to rescue her. The Song of Nephilim is a sort of broadcast center, sending out a song that seems to attract the Gnosis and worse, cause insanity in some humans. Once they save MOMO, the Federation fleet will most likely target the station and destroy it, that should stop the Gnosis from coming."_

"So what next? It looks like I've got nothing but time on my hands now…" Daemar said, hating the fact that his friends were in danger and he could do nothing.

His other smiled under his hood._ "Actually, you don't, time doesn't pass the same way here as it does in the waking world. You'll be awake sooner than you think, but don't worry, we'll meet again."_

Daemar sighed softly, of course they'd meet again, it was HIS head after all.

"So, how long do I ha-"

Bright white light obliterated his senses.

"Sir! He's coming around!"

"Already? He should be out for at least another day."

"I know sir, but his heart rate is picking up and his mental activity is increasing as well."

Daemar groaned as the voices flooded into his ears, assisting in bringing him to a conscious state. For a short time he battled with the desire to just stay asleep, he felt so very tired after being impaled like that.

_Impaled…impaled? Albedo! MOMO!_

His eyes flew open then snapped shut again at the harsh white light in the ceiling above his face. He opened them slowly, giving them time to adjust and take in the surroundings. He was in the hospital wing of the Dammurung, a large viewport to his right afforded him a view of the Kukai Foundation, Second Milita and a very large space station that Daemar had never seen before. His attention was brought back to the other people in the room, the nurse who had spoken first and a man wearing the rank of surgeon on his collar.

"Ah, good to see you awake Daemar. I'm a little surprised that you woke so soon after surgery. But that just goes to show how tough you are I suppose."

The man laughed a little and Daemar felt himself twitch, that laugh was a little like Albedo's.

"How long?"

The doctor stopped chuckling and looked down at a small pad in his hand then looked back at his patient.

"The surgery took about two hours, we had to remove your right lung completely I'm afraid, too much damage. But we did replace it with a synthetic one, top of the line too; the nano-surgery on your left lung took care of that damage easily. But, as I said, I'm surprised that you are awake so soon. It's only been forty-five minutes since we closed you up-"

The doctor cut off as Daemar pulled the sheets from his body and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. To his satisfaction, his right arm had been reattached with no problems. The doctor on the other hand wasn't so happy. He gestured to the nurse as he came around the bed and both of them tried to restrain him.

"Where do you think you're going?" The doctor asked, clearly annoyed.

"My friends are in danger, MOMO is still being held captive and I've got a job to do." Daemar responded, and got to his feet, despite the doctor's efforts.

"No you don't, by your standards, you just underwent MAJOR surgery. The kind that normally takes 14 hours or more, with little chance of survival. You need to rest for at least a day before you do anything!"

"I'm fine doctor." Daemar said simply and in truth he felt fine. "I haven't got time to lay about doing nothing, my friends need me. So you can either help me, or get out of my way." With that, he pushed away from the bed and pulled free from their grip. He paused for a brief moment to look out the viewport, ignoring the obviously agitated doctor and nurse.

"What is that thing? The Song of Nephilim?" He asked himself.

"No, it isn't." A new voice suddenly replied. Daemar looked toward a view screen built into the wall to the left of the door at the image of a young woman with short brown hair and wearing the uniform of Vector. "And you are?" He asked.

"The name is Miyuki Itsumi, Vector Industries Second Division, pleasure to meet you Mr. Daemar." She said cheerfully and actually waved at him. Daemar in turn frowned and muttered to himself. "Miyuki….Miyuki…I've heard that name before…" He raised his voice. "Wait, you were onboard the Woglinde with Kos-Mos and Shion before it was destroyed." Miyuki nodded. "Yes, well, I belonged to First Division then but that's not the point. Shion asked me to brief you on the current situation as soon as you were conscious." Daemar nodded.

"Shion and the others boarded the Song of Nephilim, you know, that triangle shaped spike? And rescued MOMO from a URTV named Albedo."

"I remember him…."

"After fighting him and another strange entity, a man dressed in black robes…huh…weird… The Song of Nephilim ceased to function and everyone returned to the Kukai Foundation. They attempted to destroy the Song but for some reason all attacks directed at it were repelled. The surviving Gnosis in the area were absorbed into the Song by Albedo and has personal A.W.G.S, Simeon. Using some of that power, Simeon created a sphere of energy which radiated outward from its position atop the Song of Nephilim and opened a rift into the Abyss. What emerged was an enormous space station called-"

"Miyuki." Daemar cut in.

"Oh, yes?"

"As important as this is, don't you think if might be better if you briefed me en-route to….whatever that thing out there is?"

"Oh…yeah…I guess that would be a good id-"

"Now hold on there." The doctor cut in, stepping in front of Daemar to speak directly to Miyuki. "This man is still my patient, and I won't allow him to go harrying off to God knows where, when he needs to rest!" He crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly and waited for her answer. It came instead from Daemar. "Doctor, I appreciate what you've done for me, if not for you, I'd be dead. But right now, my friends need me and I can't help them if I'm lying in bed waiting to heal up. Look, I feel fine and it's not like I'll be fighting alone out there. Besides, if something does happen Shion, Kos-Mos, Ziggy, and MOMO have enough knowledge of cyborg components between them to keep me from dying."

The doctor frowned, looking only somewhat convinced. "Look Doc, you're job is to take care of me until I can move about on my own, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"And you can see that I'm clearly able to walk around on my own without help, right?"

"I can see that but-"

"Then I'm well enough to do what needs to be done, so I'm going." Daemar finished as the Doctor spluttered and finally relented. "Alright…just…don't overdo it…you may feel fine but your body is still healing so don't push yourself if you don't have to." Daemar nodded and clapped the man on the shoulder. "Thanks Doctor, Miyuki, you should be able to find my personal frequency in the Dammurung's database, link up with me while I find a free shuttle and see about joining the others."

End of Chapter 12

Do you wish to save?


End file.
